Abby Dow is closing in on an astonishing comeback as England prepare to launch their bid for Women’s World Cup glory.
The Wasps wing broke her leg against Wales during England’s Grand Slam campaign in April and was told she would almost certainly miss the tournament in New Zealand.
But just five months later she is in Simon Middleton’s squad and in contention to start the opener against Fiji in Auckland on Saturday week.
Dow, 24, said: “I remember crying in my hospital bed as people broke the news to me that the World Cup was extremely unlikely.
“You hear horror stories of that person who was on form and then got injured and missed out. We’d been building for this event for five years and the thought of ‘it’s me’ was going through my head."
She added: “The original prognosis was nine months. We tried to squeeze it down to six, at one point using five different machines at the same time. Now we’re trying to squeeze it down a bit more.”
Asked whether he had taken a gamble in selecting Dow, Middleton replied: “It's a bigger gamble not to take her.
“If we can get her on the park and something near her best form, we know we'll have a cutting edge.”
