The science of physical preparation is now so advanced that if you can spend some quality time in the gym, you can do your career a real favour.”Having said that, though, it will be a long time before I feel any desire to sit in a stand. Along with a pack full of other first-choice forwards – Lawrence Dallaglio, Jason Leonard, Martin Johnson and the ubiquitous Back – Hill is coming to the mini-tournament fresh, fit and well-rested. The selectors’ decisions will come down to form, pure and simple.”We’d all been talking about the need for six weeks off and while I rather overdid it by taking the best part of six months, the break served its purpose. The more trouble-free rugby I play, the better the future looks.”It will look very bright indeed if Woodward picks him for the opening World Cup qualifier with the Netherlands at Huddersfield in five weeks. I’ve been told I’ll have to be very observant for the rest of my career.”I’ll live with it, though; I’m playing with a fair amount of confidence and every game I complete, my self-belief goes up another notch. If my back is going to flare up again, it will do so pretty quickly At least I know where I stand.

“According to the specialists, a number of sportsmen have suffered psychologically as a direct result of my type of condition and the long recovery process involved. Even now, I have to watch my step and not take any liberties with my training. There are certain very common exercises with weights – squats, for example – that I can no longer perform because of the potential for stress on my lower back. They would spend all session racing past me and smiling at me over their shoulders.

Eventually, I found some much needed privacy in a local school pool.”Embarrassment might have been the least of Hill’s mental torments. I had the operation in March and, quite honestly, it couldn’t have come soon enough.”But there would be no short cut to full fitness; Hill was warned off running and gym work for several weeks and packed off to the swimming pool instead “Nightmare Total nightmare I am not, repeat not, a swimmer. I spent weeks ploughing up and down the slow lane of Southgate Baths, getting to know quite a few of the old folk who were regulars there. “For some strange reason, I got through the afternoon without too much hassle, but I was in trouble again on the way back I just couldn’t bear to stay in a normal sitting position. You know there’s something wrong when you spend an entire coach trip stretched out on the floor.”The doctors diagnosed a bulging disc and said it was rubbing on a nerve. Surgery was the only option; the pain was spreading into my legs and I couldn’t lead a normal daily life, let alone play rugby I couldn’t sit and I couldn’t sleep It was hellish. “Leicester will demand more of us and that explains the sharp edge amongst the squad during this week’s training.