Jack Rodwell says he is ready to put his failed Olympic dream behind him and get back to his best for Everton.

The Blues midfielder, widely considered to be a contender for Team GB, was this week omitted from Stuart Pearce's squad after a persistent hamstring problem restricted him to just five games in seven months.

However, Rodwell is confident his injury nightmare is now in the past and says his focus is on rediscovering the form which earned him his first senior England caps in November last year.

"It is a disappointment but I think it's good for me to get a pre-season as well," Rodwell told evertontv when asked about the blow of missing out on the games. "Obviously I would have liked to have played but I feel like I'm in the right place now, I'm feeling fit, I'm doing a good pre-season and hopefully I'm ready to go for the first game of the season.

"I just want to stay injury free and get a good run of games because everyone wants to stay injury free. I don't know if it will happen but, touch wood, it won't happen again."

Rodwell's injury problems began shortly after he returned from international duty with the Three Lions and completely disrupted his season.

Every time the youngster thought he was back on track, he would suffer a recurrence of the same problem.

In the end his repetitive breakdowns forced him to seek advice from specialists and the decision appears to have paid off.

"I went to a specialist and I feel like I've sorted all my problems out now," he said. "I've done everything so far in training and I'm feeling really fit.

"It was just a few mechanical problems that were going wrong in my body but I feel like it's all sorted now.

"I'm fully there [in terms of fitness], 100 per cent, doing everything, so I'm feeling good."

Ready to stake his claim again, the youngster can also look back and appreciate that what was an agonising phase of his career also taught him a valuable lesson in overcoming disappointment.   

"It's the most frustrating thing in football, but that is football - everyone gets injured," he explained. "You've just got to put it behind you and look to the future.

"This pre-season is now massive for me because I need some fitness. Obviously I've not played in a long time and I need to get back into the swing of things and hopefully get a few games under my belt so I'm ready from the off."

Six of Everton's pre-season games LIVE only on evertontv - click here to find out more.