England's Watson lifts lid on rehab issues

Anthony Watson has shed light on his injury-hit year. The England winger hasn't played since he went off during last season's Six Nations match against Ireland at Twickenham.

A ruptured left Achilles' tendon has required two surgeries, but that hasn't been his only setback on his road to recovery.

"I had a quad issue recently, which put my recovery back a few weeks, but we're very happy with my Achilles."

"It's the best I've felt since I had my injury," the 25-year-old said in an interview with Somerset Live.

Watson explained the frustrating side-effects of trying to bounce back from a particular injury.

"Often when you're rehabbing a long-term injury on one side of your body, it can affect the other side of your body.

"Before that I did a couple of contact training sessions, which were pretty tasty. In terms of chop tackling and things like that, I'm not too worried. I'm pretty confident in that area of my game."

Watson faces a fight to get himself back into England contention, the British & Irish Lions full-back now has the challenge of trying to usurp Eliot Daly, who has slotted into the 15 jersey for this season's Six Nations.

England's stocks for back three options have increased with the return of Chris Ashton from Toulon, while Watson's Bath clubmate Joe Cokanasiga has followed up his impressive Autumn with some strong performances during the Six Nations.

Jonny May's form has made him appear undroppable, while the versitile Jack Nowell is a firm favourite with Eddie Jones. Mike Brown remains on the fringes, however he did participate in the pre-Championship training camp in Portugal and travelled to Dublin for the Ireland game as injury cover.

But Watson appears undeterred by the competition and is solely focused on getting back to optimum shape.

"My aim is to be faster and stronger than before I suffered the injury," he said.

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