By John Haughey
BBC Sport |
Illness and injury wrecked the Irish record-holder's hopes of competing in the Olympic Games.
It was a hugely frustrating season for McKee who was unable to build on his world indoor bronze won in 2003.
But through it all, McKee always tried to remain unbeat and he is now focusing on regaining fitness for this summer.
"It's going well so far although I'm taking it slowly and not yet doing the full sessions with the group that I'm training with," McKee told BBC Sport.
"The important thing is that I've had no setbacks and hopefully if things go well, I'll be able to do full sessions with my coach Bill Kelly's group in a couple of weeks.
"I'm enjoying getting out on the track again and I had a particularly good session last Tuesday when the adrenaline started to flow again."
A virus put paid to any lingering hopes that McKee had of competing in Athens.
 |  It's really a case of taking it day-by-day rather than thinking about the summer |
The illness hit him in May just as he appeared to be shaking off the hamstring problem which had dogged him for a year.
At first he attempted to train inspite of the virus but with no sign of improvement, he then was left with the only option of completely curtailing training.
It was only in November that he was able to doing any light training and since then, he has gradually stepped up his workload.
McKee's fitness problems meant he had to rule out any hope of competing on this year's indoor circuit.
"It was never really on after missing so many months and all my attention now if focused on getting myself right for the summer.
"To be honest, it's really a case of taking it day-by-day rather than thinking about the summer and the World Championships in Helsinki.
"It's just a series of small targets and hopefully I can get myself back gradually.
"Hopefully by mid-February, I will finally be at the stage where I won't really have to hold myself back in training."
MMIX
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