BLACKBURN midfielder David Dunn has admitted he felt so low at Birmingham that he seriously considered quitting professional football.

Fed up of being an injury crock, Dunn thought long and hard about hanging up his boots during some of the long hours he spent alone in his flat in the Midlands.

A succession of injury problems had forced the 27-year-old to take stock of his life, and there came a point in December 2004, when he suffered a fresh set-back against Middlesbrough, where he began to think about turning his back on the game for good.

However, two years down the line, the smile is back on Dunn's face once again, and he has even reached the point where he can start to joke about those dark days at Birmingham.

Asked what he would have done had he decided to quit football, Dunn remarked I reckon I'd be a great bus driver' - a reference to the amount of time he spent travelling up and down the M6 so he could be closer to his family in Lancashire.

Thankfully, Dunn is now injury-free and back at the club where he feels he belongs, and speaking ahead of Rovers' game with Aston Villa at Ewood Park tomorrow, he seems to be motivated by a real desire to exorcise some of the ghosts from his past.

"People always ask me 'are you still fit?' and it does hack me off," said Dunn, aware of the stigma his previous injury record has created.

"I just think 'have you not seen the team-sheet the last 10 weeks?'.

"It's very hard for people to change their opinions of me - they think I'm injury-prone. I know Darren Anderton used to get annoyed by it when he was at Birmingham.

"But I've got to get it right and that can only happen with playing games."

Dunn reached his lowest ebb when he got crocked in that game against Middlesbrough, at a time when he was being touted for an England call-up.

"It was frustrating getting in a position where I was playing really well then I'd pick up another injury," he recalls.

"I was playing well one Christmas and we played Middlesbrough - there was lots of talk about Stewart Downing for England.

"There'd been talk I could push my way back into the England reckoning, too, but I did my hamstring again.

"It crossed my mind then quite a few times when I was on my own in my flat in Birmingham that I didn't want to carry on.

"I felt there must be other things out there for me. I started thinking to myself I don't want to be going through all this again' because I couldn't find any solution to the problems. But, luckily, it's been fine since I've been back at Blackburn."

Since signing for Rovers in January, Dunn has reaped the benefits of a rigorous training programme under Mark Hughes, but he's not just feeling happier on the pitch, he's far more content off it, too, now that he's near his family again.

"I grew up a bit at Birmingham but I'm totally enjoying being back here. It's great to be back with my family and seeing my little girl.

"I was a little bit homesick. My family and my little girl were up here so I was coming up three times a week - it was killing me really."

As for his performances, Dunn is just happy to be getting a run of games under his belt again after three years of incessant injury problems.

Now he is hoping to finish the season with a flourish, and he admits if Rovers reach the FA Cup final by beating Chelsea next week it will go a long way towards erasing the memories of what happened at Birmingham.

"We've got an important league game coming up before we can think about the semi-final - but that will be massive for us and what a stage to do it on," said Dunn.

"As for my own form, I get a bit frustrated because I'm not playing as well as I want to - but then I'm staying fit so it's a difficult one.

"I think next season, with a good pre-season behind me, I will be able to push on.

"When you've been out so long your awareness goes, but that's match-fitness as much as anything.

"I'm sure it will come."