I’m better now after injury time out insists Taylor

WASPS hooker Tommy Taylor is ready to re-launch his bid for further England honours after recovering from his second serious knee injury in three years.

Taylor, capped once against Wales in 2016, ruptured the ACL in his right knee during England training ahead of last summer’s tour to Argentina, having previously suffered an identical injury to his left knee while playing against the Barbarians at Twickenham.

After returning in last week’s Anglo-Welsh Cup tie against Leicester, Taylor said: “Having not played for seven months it was a really good run-out for me.

“You get over most of the mental hurdles in training so I just threw myself in 100 per cent and it all felt pretty natural again and I just want to get on the pitch as much as I can again now.

“Time off does give you a chance to refresh your mind, take a step back and look at all aspects of your game. I feel I’m coming back as a better player and my recovery’s gone well, with no bumps in the road.”

Taylor could be forgiven for casting envious glances as Tom Dunn, Luke CowanDickie and Jack Singleton have seized their Red Rose chances, but he said: “Dunn’s played really well for Bath and CowanDickie’s got himself back in there now so it’s good for both of them to be in that environment, but my target now is to get the Wasps No.2 shirt before the end of the season and put myself back into contention.”

With Wasps’ injury problems easing, Taylor is desperate to reach another Premiership final.

He added: “We’re out of Europe so we have nine regular season Premiership games to concentrate on and know what we have to do. We’re not going to go into our shells and with guys coming back from injury, we’re confident we can reach another final.

“These next four league games could make or break our season and if we can close the gap on Exeter and Saracens and get into a position to have a home semi-final, that would be massive for our squad as we target that first piece of major silverware.”