TERRACE favourite Yann Kermorgant says Cherries’ promotion push has his full focus following a “difficult period for me personally”.

Kermorgant returned to the starting line-up for Saturday’s visit of Blackburn having been left out during the midweek defeat at Nottingham Forest.

The Frenchman, who had been in attendance at the City Ground, politely declined to elaborate on the reasons behind his absence but admitted “some personal problems” had “affected me quite a lot”.

Kermorgant twice came close to breaking the deadlock during Cherries’ 0-0 draw against Rovers with one second-half header superbly saved by Jason Steele and another coming back off the crossbar.

He told the Daily Echo: “It was a difficult period for me personally. On Wednesday, it was my responsibility to speak with the manager and make a decision. At a time when we all need to be 100 per cent, I felt it was really difficult for me.

“I felt drained by what had happened in my life and it was the best decision to stay out of the team and let the lads play who were 100 per cent so we had the best chance to try to win the game.

“My wife and son are now back because they had been in France for two weeks. I need them to be with me and I am now ready to finish the season strongly and help my team as much as I can reach where we all want to be.”

Kermorgant has netted 11 goals this season and went close to adding to his tally as Cherries’ record of having scored in 21 successive home league games came to an end.

A share of the spoils left them three points behind second-placed Middlesbrough and five adrift of leaders Derby, who both lost.

Kermorgant added: “We have to keep calm, even if it is a little difficult at the moment because we can hear when other clubs and some fans say it is over for us in terms of automatic promotion.

“We just have to focus on ourselves and keep working hard. If you look at our past five games, we have deserved more. Sometimes in football you do things exactly the same but things just don’t go your way.

“Sometimes it is down to us and sometimes it is down to the goalkeeper. I thought we did everything we could to score against Blackburn but their goalkeeper did really well. We kept a clean sheet and stopped them creating any chances.

"If we keep working, I am sure we can come back and finish the season really strongly.”