Two weeks from today, Mike Tindall will have a better idea of when he is likely to play again. The optimist in the England centre hopes that Gloucester’s Heineken Cup quarter-final against Munster on April 5 may be attainable, the pessimist that the internal injuries he suffered during England’s match against Wales 12 days ago may take the remainder of the season to heal.

In any case, Tindall is setting no targets. Given the severity of the damage to his liver and lung from a relatively innocuous situation, he will listen to his specialist on February 28 and set his sights accordingly. If not quite on the scale of Jonny Wilkinson since both shared in England’s 2003 World Cup success, Tindall has become accustomed to injuries that have disrupted his playing career, for club and country.

Yesterday he was a cheerful presence around the Gloucester training centre at Hartpury College, no more than a week since he was allowed out of the intensive care unit at Hammersmith Hospital in West London. But he can undertake no physical activities for the rest of this month. “As long as the haematoma around the liver goes, it will be fine, you just have to wait,” he said, casually.

Tindall, 29, was carried off the pitch at Twickenham in distress after an accidental collision in which his diaphragm and sternum landed on the upturned boot of Mark Jones, the Wales wing. At the time he felt badly winded and that he might have cracked a couple of ribs, but the outcome was far more serious.

There was a tear to his liver an inch deep and damage to the lungs, creating internal bleeding that, fortunately for Tindall, clotted quickly. But he remained in intensive care for three days to ensure that the bleeding did not recur, otherwise surgery would have been required.

“This is one of those things that are very rare,” he said. “A millimetre either way and I could have rolled off the other guy’s foot. It's not something you expect to happen, but unluckily for me it did.”

Simon Kemp, the England doctor, stayed with him for much of his first night in hospital, as did Zara Phillips, the Queen’s granddaughter who is Tindall’s partner; he was able to return to their home on Friday, in time to attend Gloucester’s Guinness Premiership match against Leicester the next day.

Blood tests on Tuesday indicated a healthy rise in his haemoglobin level, but there will be more scans on February 28 to assess the state of his internal organs. “I hope I can play again this season, but that’s open-ended, it’s just how long things take to settle down,” he said, but in the meantime Gloucester, who play Bristol on Sunday, and England will miss him.

“A lot of people don’t understand what Mike brings with him,” Dean Ryan, the Gloucester head coach, said. “He makes such good decisions, he’s such a strong player which allows others to play off him.”

In addition, Tindall was England’s vice-captain and at a time when the team have been accused of lacking leadership, the absence of a player with 54 caps and eight international years to his credit is damaging.

“The national side moves on to the next test, we had to follow up behind and make sure that Mike got the right care, that he got home as quickly as possible,” Ryan said. “You do feel isolated when you’re not well and far from home. We were pleased he could get out of hospital within a week and be comfortable in his own surroundings.”

The first 33 of Tindall’s caps, from 2000-03, came in a steady stream and were relatively uninterrupted. The next 21 have come in fits and starts, thanks to injuries that cost him a place among the 2005 Lions in New Zealand and in the England squad for last year’s World Cup defence in France. “You can’t beat yourself up about things, injuries do happen,” he said.

“This is a bit of a weird one, but there’s not a lot you can do about it except to make sure that when you do get back, you make as much of an impact as possible.”