KEITH Treacy could still play his part in Burnley’s season says manager Sean Dyche, providing the winger manages to stay on the right track.

The Republic of Ireland international fell out of favour under previous boss Eddie Howe following a string of poor performances.

Treacy has not been near the first team squad since being hauled off at half time of the Clarets’ Capital One Cup second round game against Plymouth in August – his only appearance this season.

He is not expected to figure in tomorrow’s trip to Hull City but the 24-year-old has knuckled down under Dyche, who says he is working with Treacy to try to get him back to his best form.

“He’s someone who has talent and is realigning his thoughts on it,” said the Burnley boss.

“I’m a great believe in working with people. If you affect the person you’ll affect their performance.

“It’s an open chance for him to do well, as it is for all of those players.

“Sometimes you might go into a new club and you think you have to make changes immediately.

“Here it’s a case of are the players willing to change accordingly for what we think is appropriate and what we think will move them, the team and the club forward?

“So far they’ve accepted that with open arms and I think that’s shown in performances, the way they’ve gone about it. That’s a good sign.”

Treacy scored in a friendly with Rochdale at Burnley’s Gawthorpe training base in midweek, which the Clarets won 6-0 with David Edgar grabbing a hat-trick and Wes Fletcher scoring the other two goals.

But Dyche believes Treacy has not yet reached the fitness levels expected of him.

“Keith’s a work in progress himself. His fitness has just been lacking slightly, we’ve done a bit of work with that,” said Dyche.

“I’ve spoken to him on several occasions. He’s certainly got something to offer, as have many others.

“His journey back to real first team fitness will only help himself and the squad. That’s the plan.”

Dyche added: “He’s working hard. He’s working at his fitness levels, because that’s important.

“The fitness demands of the game – you can forget about my opinion, it’s there for everyone to see. You see every week in the Premier League, you can pick any stats up off the internet, there’s that much out there.

“There’s a certain requirement beyond my thoughts on it, it’s just the reality of football.

“There’s a certain fitness base that is needed and he’s not quite there yet, but he’s getting there.

“We’ll monitor his situation wisely because we do believe he’s a very good player.”