Leicester Tigers and England hooker Nic Dolly says he took advantage of his 11-month injury lay-off to ensure he would come back “a better athlete”.

He returned in an exhibition match against Northampton on Monday.

“Hopefully I look back at this in five or 10 years and actually be quite thankful for the opportunity to work on my body,” Dolly said.

“Straightaway I looked at it as an opportunity. I got 10 months to work on myself before I re-joined training.

“You never get a chance to work on yourself physically for this long, so just being able to take advantage of that and be able to push the boundaries – whether that is strength, speed, power, fitness and all those things – to make sure you come back a better athlete.”

Dolly admits he could have “sat at home, moped and got a face on”, but was determined to “try to get back as fast as possible”.

He watched his team-mates beat Saracens in the Premiership final from the Twickenham stands, having undergone surgery just 10 days earlier.

‘I believe we can win it’

The injury also cost the forward, born and raised in Sydney, any chance of touring Australia with England last summer, having earned his first and only cap off the bench in November 2021.

“There is never good timing in rugby. You could sit there and say there were big finals coming up, and I also had my eyes set on future England endeavours with the Aussie tour and trying to get back there in front of family,” Dolly told BBC Radio Leicester.

“It’s part and parcel of the game and you obviously never think [it will happen] and you hope it never happens, until it does.

“The only thing you can do is control the controllables, making sure that I was doing everything the physio said and beyond.”

Dolly now hopes to make his competitive return for the Tigers, but knows he faces a challenge to break into a side that has won its past six league games to move to the brink of securing a semi-final spot.

While the hooker says being part of last season’s title-winning squad was “special” – even though he missed the final – he is excited to return to a team he feels can go on to emulate last season’s glory.

“I believe we can win it, I really do,” he added. “And it will be even more special when we go and back it up. We are looking good and we will just push on.”