Women’s Six Nations: England captain Sarah Hunter on return from injury

Hunter says doctors eventually “got to the bottom of it”, allowing her to finally return to the game that she loves.

Despite not being able to play for over a year, she remains a shining example of leadership for her team-mates to follow.

When head coach Simon Middleton decided she was not quite ready to return in last weekend’s 52-10 win against Scotland, she immediately asked whether she could be the water-carrier for the game to stay involved.

It is behaviour like this that leads Middleton to describe Hunter as a “fantastic leader” and someone England have “missed massively”.

“It is the quality and spirit that she brings for someone who has so many caps,” Middleton says.

“Every training session is exactly the same. It is 100% or it’s nothing.”

Those qualities may be essential if England are to claim a first World Cup win since 2014 in New Zealand next year.

Hunter knows that she will have to manage her body to be in optimum condition for the competition and that may well mean begrudgingly playing less in the meantime.

“I’m at a stage in my career where I don’t need to do certain things,” she says.

“That acceptance probably comes with a bit of a grudge. My ultimate goal is to play in that World Cup next year.

“If that means potentially not playing every game or every minute but I get to go and live the dream and win another World Cup I’ll take being selective over the games I play to keep me going for a little bit longer.

“Most people want to play every game and every minute but I’m at the stage where I recognise that might not be possible or our medics would have a tough job.”