JACK Brooks, who has dismissed rumours that he wants to leave Yorkshire, insists he is starting 2018 with a clean slate.

The summer just gone was the most frustrating of Brooks' career but the 33-year-old wants to "show what this club means to me".

Injured at the start of the season and out of form, as well as the team, for large parts of it, he only really hit his straps in September, when he took 13 wickets in the last three County Championship matches.

Brooks, who totalled 23 wickets in eight matches, has now returned with many of his colleagues for pre-season training at Headingley.

"Last season was probably the most frustrating of my career – a little bit of injury, lack of form and not really being around the team for a while," he said.

"But I finished strong and we stayed up. That was a mini target personally and for the team coming into that last month.

"It's a clean slate now. We'll learn and try and put things right. There is a lot of drive there from the lads and I'm genuinely excited for next season.

"I'll take a lot from that last month. Knowing there was a big block of Championship cricket at the end, I was confident of taking wickets if selected and that's what happened."

Brooks' best haul was 5-113 in a high-scoring draw against Surrey on a flat Oval pitch in mid-September.

He said: "I took a lot from that. Kumar Sangakkara was in great nick and no seamers from either team got a hold on the game. It was difficult to keep the runs down with a short boundary on one side.

"I was very proud of how I went about it, not just with the wickets but the economy rate. That's something I seem to get stick for. When I'm bowling well, I don't really go for runs.

"I also think I bowled pretty well at Essex last game, aside from one spell."

From 2014 to 2016, Brooks reached the 60-wicket mark in each Championship campaign.

"Part of the frustration was that I'd almost become accustomed to taking wickets all the time in a winning team – but that's not how sport works," he said.

"You can't just expect to win every game and take bagfuls of wickets.

"It wasn't through a case of not trying hard or training less or my skills falling away. It was just battling against a little bit of catch-up from the (calf) injury at the start of the year.

"Also, the team wasn't clicking as we'd like, so we weren't getting on top of teams that much, and the way I'd bowl wasn't really going to plan.

"We weren't at the races but still finished fourth. That's incredible, especially given we got hammered last game at Essex. A lot of teams, even Essex, if you'd said 'you'll finish fourth', they'd have taken it.

"It's just that fact that we've been accustomed to success – this was the first time since I've been at the club that we went into the last few weeks knowing we couldn't win the league.

"It will make it that little bit sweeter if we can win the league off the back of last season."

As for rumours about him leaving, Brooks said: "I don't know where these come from.

"Two or three years ago, I heard people saying I was going to Lancashire.

"Again this year, I heard talk of me leaving, but I've got another year on my contract and I've never wanted to leave.

"I'm willing to fight for my place and show what this club means to me. I still want to play a big part in the white-ball stuff as well."