O'Kane: Eunan Charles (Eunan)

2016-Current (Leeds Player Details) (Player Details)

Midfield

Born: Londonderry: 10-07-1990

Debut: Blackburn Rovers (h): 13-09-2016

5' 6" 10st 12lb (2016)

Born in Londonderry he started his football career with the Maiden City Soccer Academy in Derry and was signed by Everton when seventeen in 2007. He had already represented Northern Ireland twice at Under-Sixteen level and then had scored one goal in gaining seven Under-Seventeen Caps. One being in the UEFA European Under-Seventeen Championship (Elite round) on 19th March 2007, in a 2-2 draw with Iceland. He served his apprenticeship with them but was then released two years later, when his contract was not renewed by David Moyes. Whilst at Goodison Park he had represented Northern Ireland seven times at Under Nineteen and once at Under-Twenty, on 29th September 2009 when Ireland defeated the Germany Under-Eighteen team 3-2, as O'Kane scored the opening goal in the forty-fourth minute and then scored the decider in the final minute. On 5th September 2008 O'Kane had played his third Under-Twenty One game for Northern Ireland when he came on as a seventy-seventh minute substitute for Danny Lafferty in a 0-3 defeat by Germany at the Stadion am Zoo in Wuppertal in the UEFA European Under- Twenty-One Championship qualification, having already played in the 0-1 defeat by Poland on 19th August 2008, as a substitute and started in the 1-4 defeat by Ukraine the following day. He returned to Ireland and joined Coleraine in August 2009, making his debut for them in the Danske Bank Premiership as a half-time substitute for Johnny Watt. He took just fourteen minutes to register his first goal and give Coleraine a 3-1 lead over Glenavon at Mourneview Park on 5th September 2009 in a game that Coleraine finished up winning 3-2. He started the next game, a week later, in a 3-1 win over Institute FC at the Coleraine Showgrounds, but Darren Henderson took over from him in the sixty-ninth minute. He played his first full game for Coleraine in the next game on 22nd September 2009 when Coleraine defeated Lisburn Distillery FC 2-1 at the Coleraine Showgrounds. On 10th December 2009 he committed to play to the end of the 2009-10 season. He went on to start twelve and come off the bench once before playing his final game in a 3-0 home win over Newry City FC on 28th November 2009, before being transferred to League Two side, Torquay United, on 13th January 2010, where he initially signed to the end of the 2009-10 season. He made his debut for Torquay at Saltergate when he came on as an eighty-fourth minute substitute for Chris Hargreaves as Chesterfield were 1-0 winners. He then played four further substitute appearances before starting against Hereford United at Edgar Street on 6th February 2010 only to be replaced by Danny Stevens after fifty-seven minutes in a 0-1 defeat. A week later he started in the 1-2 home defeat by Port Vale, but nine minutes before the end he gave way to Danny Stevens. On 2nd March 2010 he finally played a full ninety minutes in a 0-0 draw at Plainmoor with Dagenham & Redbridge FC. It was to be his only full game of the season as a succession of minor substitute appearances was all he could manage. However, four days later, he did open his scoring account when, on 6th March 2010 at the Darlington Arena, he made the score 2-0 two minutes into the First Half injury time in a game that Torquay went on to win 3-1. He started five, came on as a substitute eleven times and sat unused on the bench six times as Torquay United finished seventeenth. On 28th April 2010 O'Kane signed a two year contract with the Plainmoor club. The 2011-12 season was an excellent one for O'Kane and his club. O'Kane scored eight goals in fifty-five games as Torquay went as close as possible to gain promotion, as they finished seventh in the League Two table and got as far as the final of the play-offs before losing 0-1 to Stevenage at Old Trafford on 28th May 2011. In the League he scored six goals and was an ever-present forty-six but that comprised thirty-one starts, fourteen games as a substitute and one where he was unused on the bench. In the other competitions he was involved in all games, scoring once in the F.A. Cup in which he started three and came off the bench once, while in the League Cup he came off the bench once, in the Football League Trophy he started both games and he scored once and also started all three games in the League Two play-offs. His goals came in the League at Crewe Alexandra on 9th October 2010 when he netted in the sixty-seventh minute to give his side a 3-1 lead, but Crewe came back to make the score 3-3 after he was substituted for Martin Gritton eight minutes later. Goal two was at Edgeley Park on 20th November 2010 when opened the scoring in the sixty-first minute but Stockport County came back to draw 1-1. Goal three came at Edgar Street on 1st January 2011 when he opened the scoring in the twenty-fifth minute but the home side hit back to draw 2-2 as O'Kane was substituted in the seventieth minute and replaced by Danny Stevens. Goal four was at Plainmoor in the reverse game with Crewe Alexandra and he opened the scoring in the seventh minute in a 2-1 win on 11th January 2011. Goal number five was again at Plainmoor on 1st March 2011, as he opened the scoring in the seventeenth minute, the visitors, Rotherham United, made the score 1-1 and O'Kane was replaced by Damon Lathrope in the seventy-eighth minute. Goal six, came on 25th March 2011 at the Sixfields Stadium where oce again he opened the scoring, this time in the fourteenth minute but home side Northampton Town came back to draw 2-2. His other two goals came on 8th January 2011 in the Third Round of the F.A. Cup when he got the only goal of the game in the sixth minute as Torquay knocked Carlisle United out at Plainmoor and O'Kane was replaced by Joe Oastler in the eighty-ninth minute. The other goal came in the League Two Play-offs first leg at Plainmoor, when he scored the second goal thrre minutes into injury time at the end of the First Half as Torquay beat Shrewsbury Town 2-0 on 14th May 2011. He got the fourth of his four Northern Ireland Under-Twenty-One caps when he started at Firhill in a 1-3 defeat by Scotland in a friendly and he got the only Irish goal in the thirty-fourth minute with a shot from long range before being substituted in the fifty-fourth minute by Josh Carson. On 26th September 2011 he signed a two year extension to his contract which meant that he was committed to Torquay until the summer of 2014. The 2011-12 season was probably even better than the previous one, but after finishing fifth in League Two, they again failed to get promoted as they went down to sixth placed Cheltenham Town in the two legged round of the play-offs on a 1-4 aggregate. However, he and three other teammates, Goalkeeper Bobby Olejnik, Left-back Kevin Nicholson and fellow midfielder Lee Mansell were all included in the 2011-12 PFA Team of the Year for League Two. He scored five times in fifty-one games as again he went close to being ever-present. He started forty-five League Two games and scored five goals. The goals came at home to Macclesfield Town, when he scored the third goal in a 3-0 win with a goal in the last minute. The second was again at Plainmoor in a 4-0 win over AFC Wimbledon on 25th October 2011, when he scored the second two minutes before Half-Time and was later replaced by Daniel Leadbitter four minutes before time. His third and fourth goals came in the 3-1 home win over Plymouth Argyle on 19th November 2011, when he scored twice, with Torquay's first and second goals in the forty-seventh and forty-ninth minutes to give them a 2-0 lead. His fifth goal came on 3rd March 2012 when he got the only goal of the game in the seventy-ninth minute at the Broadfield Stadium against Crawley Town. He also came off the bench in one Football League Trophy game when he replaced Lee Mansell after fifty-five minutes in a 1-2 loss at Cheltenham Town. He also started twice in the F.A. Cup and once in the League Cup and twice in the League Two play-offs. In August 2011, he had decided that he would rather play for the Republic of Ireland than Northern Ireland and joined the Republic's Under-Twenty-One squad, making his debut for them when he started in a 2-2 draw in the UEFA European Under-Twenty-One Championship qualification game with Italy Under-Twenty-Ones at Sligo Showgrounds on 4th June 2012. On 26th July 2012 he signed for League One side, Bournemouth, after terms had previously been agreed with Crawley Town, but O'Kane refused to move. The fee was £175,000 and O'Kane signed a three year contract. He was attracted to the Bournemouth style of play and the club's ambition. He had played one hundred and twenty-two games for Torquay and scored fourteen goals. He had scored twelve goals in eighty-one starts and twenty-five games from the bench in the League, scored once in five starts and one game from the bench in the F.A. Cup, started one and came on as a substitute in the Football League Cup, scored once in two starts and one game from the bench in the Football League Trophy and started five games in the League One play-offs. He made his League debut for Bournemouth in the opening fixture of the 2012-13 season when he started in the 1-1 draw at Fratton Park with local rivals, Portsmouth. He went on to start thirty-three League One games, came off the bench four times and was unused seven times. He scored once in the League at the Vitality Stadium on 29th December 2012, when he got the third goal in the eighty-fourth minute in a 3-0 home win over Crawley Town. He also scored twice in three starts and one game from the bench in the F.A. Cup. The first goal came in the Second Round, when he scored in the thirty-sixth minute to make the score 2-0, as Bournemouth triumphed 3-1 over Carlisle United at Brunton Park. The second was the opening goal in the forty-first minute at the DW Stadium as they held Wigan Athletic to a 1-1 draw. Bournemouth were promoted from League One to the Championship as they were pipped by one point for top-spot by one point by Doncaster Rovers. He added another three caps for the Republic of Ireland Under-Twenty-Ones to take his total to four when he took part in three further UEFA European Under-Twenty-One Championship qualification games. On 14th August 2012 he played a full game at Croke Park when they lost by 0-1 to Turkey. On 6th September 2012 he started the game at the Szektoi Stadion and was substituted in the seventieth minute by Adam Barton in the 1-2 loss to Hungary. His fourth cap came in the reverse fixture with Italy at Stadio Giuseppe Capozza in Casarano, Italy, when he again played a full game in a 2-4 defeat by Italy four days later. In the 2013-14 season Bournemouth finished tenth, but just six points off the play-offs as they became known for their neat footballing style. He was a regular and missed very few games, with thirty-two starts, five games from the bench and being unused substitute on six occasions. He scored one goal which was the third goal in the sixty-fifth minute as Yeovil Town were defeated 3-0 at the Vitality Stadium on Boxing Day 2013. He also started twice in the F.A. Cup and started once in the League Cup, scoring with a right foot shot in the fifty-fourth minute to score the only goal in the defeat of Portsmouth at the Vitality Stadium on 6th August 2013. On 11th March 2014 O'Kane signed a new three-and-a-half year contract with Bournemouth. He was in the final eighteen months of his previous contract and the new extension took him through to the summer of 2017. Bournemouth were promoted to the Premiership as champions of the Championship at the end of the 2014-15 season, but, by then, he had already lost his regular spot in the team and his eight League starts had all come before the end of September but he also had three games from the bench and sat unused in nine others. He did start two F.A. Cup ties and also started four League Cup ties and in that competition he scored his one goal for the season when he open the scoring at the Vitality Stadium, four minutes into the second half, in a 2-1 win over West Bromwich Albion in the Fourth Round on 28th October 2014. Bournemouth made a good start in the Premier League, finishing sixteenth and, while O'Kane featured regularly in the squad he only started six times in the League, but came off the bench a further ten times and was an unused substitute on ten occasions. He also started three F.A. Cup ties, playing a full game in each, and started one League Cup tie and sat unused in another. He gained four full caps for the Republic of Ireland and featured on a regular basis in their squad. He played in four friendlies, starting one and coming on as a substitute on three other occasions and being an unused substitute once. His debut came as a substitute when he replaced David Meyler in the sixty-first minute of a 1-0 win over Switzerland at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on 25th March 2016, which was followed four days later at the same venue with his starting debut in a 2-2 draw with Slovakia and he played sixty-seven minutes before being replaced by Anthony Pilkington. On 27th May 2016, at the same venue, he was a substitute for Harry Arter, eight minutes from time as the Republic held the Netherlands to a 1-1 draw. Four days later at Turner's Cross in Cork he gained his fourth cap when he replaced David Meyler after seventy-five minutes in a 1-2 defeat by Belarus. He was part of the Republic's squad for the UEFA European Championships in the summer of 2016 but did not make any final elevens or the bench and he was also called up for the World Cup 2018 qualifiers in September 2016. He was in that training camp when, on the final day of the transfer window, 31st August 2016, he was signed on a two year contract by Leeds United for an undisclosed fee. He had scored two goals after starting seventy-nine League games and coming from the bench on twenty-two occasions. He had scored twice in ten starts and one game from the bench in the F.A. Cup and twice in six starts in the League Cup, while with Bournemouth. He made his League debut in the 2-1 home win in the League against Blackburn Rovers on 13th September 2016, but had not found the net before the end of the 2016-17 season, but had started Twenty League games and had also come off the bench four times and made two starts in the League Cup. His progress was stunted by injury but also that Garry Monk preferred other players. New coach Tom Christianson favoured him throughout the 2017-18 pre-season and the early League games and on 11th August 2017 he was rewarded with a new four year contract at the club. In 2017-18 he started twenty-seven times and was a substitute five times, and was three times unused. O'Kane seemed to be in need of a new club after being ruled out of new coach, Marcelo Bielsa's plans for Leeds United for the ensuing season, as Bielsa had not given him a squad number and indicated that O'Kane was not in his plans. On 31st August 2018 he was loaned to Luton Town until January 2018. On 1st September 2018 he made his League One debut in a game at Adam Park in a 1-1 draw with Wycombe Wanderers, coming on in the sixty-fourth minute as a replacement for Andrew Shinnie. Three days later he started in a Football League trophy tie but was replaced by Frankie Musonda after thirty-nine minutes in a 2-1 home win over Brighton and Hove Albion Under-Twenty-Threes. On 8th Setember 2018 he was again a substitute in a 1-2 defeat by Doncaster Rovers at the Keepmoat Stadium, replacing James Collins after seventy-six minutes. Disaster struck on 15th September in the 1-0 home win over Bristol Rovers after he had replaced Jorge Grant in the seventy-fifth minute, O'Kane had to leave the field thirteen minutes later when he suffered a fractured tibia and fibula in his left leg and had to be replaced by James Justin in the eighty- eighth minute. He received first class care from medical staff both at Kenilworth Road and the Luton & Dunstable Hospital that night. On the following day he had to undergo surgery at ththat hospital before returning to his parent club, Leeds United, for his rehabilitation following his release.

(To 2017/18)