Jack Nowell ready for Premiership and Champions Cup double

Jack Nowell says Exeter Chiefs are embracing a "World Cup camp mentality" as they prepare to resume their bid for a Premiership and Champions Cup double.

Over five months since their last game, Exeter return to Premiership action on Saturday when Leicester Tigers visit a supporterless Sandy Park.

It marks the start of a hectic period for the Chiefs, who will play three games in just 11 days, but Nowell is confident they have the squad to cope with such a demanding schedule.

"I don't think any player will be expected to play 80 minutes on a Saturday and 80 minutes again on a Tuesday," said the 27-year-old.

"It's just not possible in rugby. If you play 80 minutes on a Saturday you're probably still recovering come Wednesday or Thursday.

"At Exeter we are very lucky that we have two teams almost as strong as the other.

"The way we're looking at it, it's quite exciting. We're probably not going to be playing like this again so it's like a World Cup camp mentality where you have two games a week.

"Training will be down, most of it will be about playing. There will be less gym sessions, less training sessions on the field. It'll be about playing, recovering as soon as you can and getting ready for the next game."

Nowell is unlikely to ever experience a 20-week sojourn during his playing career and he has spent his time wisely, getting his body back into peak condition after a number of injury setbacks.

He failed to play in any of England's Rugby World Cup warm-up matches last year due to a burst appendix, and while he still had enough in the bank to earn a place in Eddie Jones' squad, his tournament lasted just 12 minutes, coming off the bench to score a try against Argentina only to then suffer a hamstring injury.

In January Nowell underwent ankle surgery, the eighth operation of his career.

"I had my op and then eight weeks of intense rehab," he said. "I went out to Austria with Red Bull and used their facilities in Salzburg.

"I had an intense eight-week block and then played around 30 minutes against Bath. That was the last game before everything got locked down. So I had a really intense rehab block, played a game and got some minutes under my belt, and then I've had 20 weeks of doing rehab again.

"I didn't do any running. The only training I did was in the gym, wattbike or weights.

"It's amazing what you can do with your body when you're not getting battered on a Saturday, putting your body through a car crash. I was waking up on a Monday morning feeling really fresh and ready to go."

Keen to make up for lost time, Nowell hopes to feature against Leicester and is relieved Exeter have the chance to win silverware on the pitch.

"We're just so happy the season is continuing," he said. "There was talk at the start of this about not being able to see the game get back up and going this year.

"We've worked really hard in both competitions, the Premiership and Heineken Cup, to get ourselves in the position we are now. We want to go on and win both competitions.

"There was talk about just giving the trophies to teams in the top positions but that would have felt a bit weird because we've got so many games to play.

"We want to do it properly. Especially with the Heineken Cup, this is only the second time we've got out of our group, so we do feel this is a good year for us to push on and win it."

To learn more about how elite athletes mentally and physically train, watch Jack's full video on the Red Bull Pro Hub.