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Tindall: Liver injury

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England centre Mike Tindall has been describing to Sky Sports News the "ridiculously unlucky" injury he picked up during England's RBS Six Nations loss to Wales a week last Saturday.

The 29-year-old is now back in training at club side Gloucester, only five days after being released from hospital - Tindall spending a period in intensive care after suffering both a tear to his liver and a punctured lung during England's 26-19 loss at Twickenham.

Of the incident itself, Tindall said: "I knew the ball was on the floor and I had (England assistant coach) Mike Ford's speech before before the game ('Any ball on the floor get down on') and I went to dive on the ball.

"I think (Wales full-back) Lee Byrne managed to fly hack it through and as he's pushed off I've sort of landed on his foot right underneath my ribs, and I felt very winded. And then that feeling didn't really go away for a little while."

Serious

Tindall was stretchered off following the incident and taken to Hammersmith Hospital to be placed under observation; by then, however, the seriousness of his injuries had become all too apparent.

"It was hard to take a deep breath and it wasn't really coming back," he continued.

Nevertheless, Tindall scoffed at some of the more lurid accounts describing his condition - or, more accurately, how seriously injured he might have been had Byrne's boot connected just a fraction away.

"I don't think it was ever going to be 'an inch either way and I would have been dead'," he grinned. "I think that's been overwritten by some reporters. An inch either way and I wouldn't have even got injured was more to the point.

"It was such a ridiculously unlucky way of landing on a boot."

Luck, or a lack of it, is something Tindall knows all about - a broken leg suffered whilst playing for Gloucester last season precluding his participation in England's run to the World Cup final last autumn.

Unsure

And, having already been ruled out of England's Six Nations campaign, Tindall added that he was still unsure as to when he will be able to put his latest setback behind him.

Asked for a specific recovery date, Tindall said: "At the moment, no, because everyone heals differently. But as soon as that (liver) haematoma's gone, and obviously my ribs have still got to heal - which would be a four-week injury anyway - then we can go from there.

"But it's just waiting to get the all-clear in terms of the liver."