Will Brooks' patience be rewarded?

David Brooks is a player who knows all about patience.

It is strange to think that it is now fully six years since the Warrington-born Wales midfielder lit up Vitality Stadium after joining from Sheffield United, earning himself a nomination for the PFA Young Player of the Year award for 2018-19, the first Cherries player to be so honoured.

Nominated alongside household names Trent Alexander-Arnold, Marcus Rashford, Declan Rice, Raheem Sterling and Bernardo Silva, Brooks also won the Football Association of Wales' player of the year and young player of the year gongs that season, and it seemed that his career would continue its upward trajectory.

The first setback came in the summer of 2019 in a pre-season friendly at Brentford, when an innocuous-looking challenge, as a Bees defender tried to block a Brooks cross from which Dominic Solanke scored, kept Brooks out for nearly a year.

Relegation to the Championship and multiple changes of manager followed, but Brooks' toughest test came in October 2021 when he was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 24. Even after receiving the all-clear the following May, niggling injuries during his rehabilitation meant Brooks did not step onto a Premier League field until March 2023.

Andoni Iraola, Bournemouth's sixth manager in three years, showed faith in Brooks by handing him the captaincy for some cup games, but with plenty of options in the wide positions, and Wales' team management openly touting their players for transfers in the hope of earning them more minutes before Euro 2024, Brooks was allowed to join Southampton on loan for the second half of last season - though as the player reaffirmed to BBC Radio Solent on Saturday, there was never any chance of a permanent switch.

As it turned out, Wales missed the Euros anyway after losing a play-off, while Brooks dislocated his shoulder in the Championship play-off final and missed the start of the new campaign. But his patience was rewarded with a goalscoring substitute appearance in Saturday's defeat by Brighton.

And with Antoine Semenyo missing Saturday's game at Wolves with suspension, it could be finally time for Brooks' patience to properly pay off.