With England having shipped 113 points in the past two Saturday afternoons, the good news for those scanning bleak horizons is that there is an old hero returning from afar. But Charlie Hodgson does not see it quite like that: “Returning Hero” does not sound the kind of headline to which he is accustomed and he frowns at the irony of the concept.

“I think I’m one of those players that is either loved or hated by people” is how he puts it. It is hard to see why anyone would hate him, but either way, the point is that Hodgson’s right anterior cruciate ligament has recovered and now that he has got his knee back, he would like his international career back, too.

He injured the knee in November, started running at the end of March, started hitting tackle bags a fortnight ago and, if there was anyone else at his Sale Sharks club working through their holiday, he would be up for contact work now. If there was a match in a month’s time, he says, he would be able to play. He has declared himself available for England’s training camp in Portugal on June 24; it just so happens that he gets married on the 23rd and he finds himself in the unlikely position of being desperate to forgo his honeymoon.

His touch-and-go marriage with England is the priority right now. When he last played, against South Africa, he was England’s clear first-choice No 10; since then, Jonny Wilkinson, who was injured at the time, has come back, pursued by Toby Flood and Shane Geraghty, and Hodgson has been – literally – thousands of miles from the gain line. It has been via his laptop in his rehab wilderness in the mountains of Vermont, in the United States, that he has been forced to watch his international standing fluctuate.

That was where he watched much of the RBS Six Nations Championship, in a freezing underpopulated ski resort called Killington where he would be “beasted” daily in a gym that overlooked the piste.

One day he was told to put on snow shoes – the old tennis racket kind – and march uphill. “With the snow about two feet deep, I can’t say that’s my idea of fun,” he said. But neither was the knowledge that the England camp was a fast-changing place and from being No 1 No 10, he now felt like No 4.

He may be England’s forgotten man, he may have missed the last World Cup with a copycat injury on the other knee and he may be absolutely brimming with desperation not to miss another, but what he does not know is self-pity. He has even persuaded himself that the injury was well-timed: four years ago, his left knee was injured with only half a year to the World Cup, this time he has had ten months and he knows it is not time but form and Brian Ashton that stand between him and an England return.

The real issue for Hodgson is England’s August internationals. He is desperate to get picked and impress but he would rather have a month or two of rediscovering his game in the club environment.

“I actually find it’s hard enough playing international rugby when you are fully fit, let alone when you’ve just come back from six months off,” he said. “So I know it’s going to be difficult for me to get back to where I was before. The World Cup is a massive target of mine, but all I can control is getting fit. Brian Ashton might not think I’m playing well enough to be picked.”

The irony is that last autumn, Hodgson was in pole position and England minds were looking to put Wilkinson at 12, outside Hodgson at 10. “I’d love to play in the same team as Jonny,” Hodgson said. “I’d love to play in that combination with two playmakers on the field.”

But now he would take anything. Him at 12 outside Wilkinson, a combination tried in 2003? “I’d take that any day. If Brian were to put me there or Jonny there, I’d be happy enough.”

And the kicking duties? “I don’t mind. I could take it or leave it, but I’d never shy away from it. If there’s a chance for me and Jonny to play together, by all means Jonny could kick, I wouldn’t have a problem with that and it would give me the chance to focus purely on my game rather than conversions and penalties. I think I’ll always have the question asked: can he kick under pressure? From my point of view, I know I can, I’ve gone way past that.”

There is an interesting self-awareness here with Hodgson that is a rarity among athletes. As he embarks on the comeback trail, Hodgson still believes he can do it, but acknowledges his limitations. “It’s just that I find international rugby hard,” he said.

“I’ve had 29 caps and I’m still finding it bloody hard and I always will do. My international career’s been a bit hit and miss, I've not been that consistent. I’ve had good games and bad, highs and lows. I’ve had to be fairly strong-minded to take the criticism and move on and improve. And it’s a nice idea, but that’s why I wouldn’t expect to be welcomed back as some kind of returning hero.”

Life in figures
Date of birth November 12, 1980
Birthplace Halifax
England debut Romania (Twickenham, 2001)
Height 1.78m (5ft 10in)
Weight 82kg (12st 13lb)
International record 29 caps, 259 points, 6 tries
Vital statistic Scored 44 points – a national record – in England’s 134-0 rout of Romania on his England debut on November 17, 2001