CAMERON Brannagan's serious eye problem has made him more determined to achieve big things at Oxford United, says Karl Robinson.

The midfielder feared he could go blind after he was hospitalised in October with inflammation behind the eye.

Staff at the John Radcliffe Hospital saved his sight and the 24-year-old has since been recovering, with an appointment last week showing signs of improvement.

Brannagan is increasing his training, but cannot join full sessions until he is taken off steroids.

It means Robinson is reluctant to predict when United's No 8 will return to action, but he was at least able to give a positive update.

The U's head coach said: “He’s in a really good place.

"They’re lowering the doses of steroids down and he’s starting to up his training.

"He’s still got this back pain that we're trying to monitor and with the steroids he’s got to work a little bit harder than he would normally do during the recovery process.

"He’s been to the last two games and he’s now come in the building.

"He’s got another appointment next week, but the appointment last week was that there were steady signs of improvement.

"It’s now a case of once we reduce his steroid dosage he’s good to go.

"The injury was so severe that we don’t want to put a timescale on it." 

Brannagan first noticed the problem during an in-house game at the Kassam Stadium on October 13, when United's game against Crewe Alexandra was postponed for a second time.

Tests at the John Radcliffe found he was suffering from rare inflammation, which occurs just twice a year in the entire country, enabling doctors to save his right eye.

While coronavirus fears forced him to isolate during the early part of his recovery, Robinson revealed Brannagan has recently started to show signs of his old self.

He said: "We’ve seen his cheeky little grin around the place and his moaning, the comments we got used to when Cameron was okay.

"He’s desperate to play football and wants to make this a home for his career for a long period of time.

"What’s gone over the last few months has really fuelled the fire to want to be successful at Oxford United.

"Our contracts run parallel to each other, so he knows how important I think he is.”