Mike Brown '100 per cent ready' for England after concussion
Friday 21 August 2015 16:06, UK
Mike Brown is '100 per cent sure' he is ready to resume to England duty after six months out with a concussion.
Brown has not played any rugby since being knocked out during the Six Nations match against Italy in February but has been included in Stuart Lancaster's training squad for the World Cup, which begins next month.
And he has been named at full-back in the team to play France in the national side's warm-up match on Saturday, for which both sides have named strong sides.
Concussion has become a big talking point in rugby after George North was knocked out on club duty for Northampton in March, a month after being rendered unconscious twice while playing for Wales against England.
But Brown says he is ready to play and that the protocol of total rest has proved critical.
"I'm 100 per cent sure," he told Sky Sports News HQ. "A Test match is completely different to training but I wouldn't be here if I wasn't ready and I wouldn't put myself in that situation.
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"The coaches and medical team certainly wouldn't either and I'm 100 per cent ready. The training has been brutal and I'm just looking forward to getting out there."
And he added: "It has been a long five months. It all seems so long ago and there is absolutely no doubt that I am good to go.
"The symptoms, which mainly involved headaches, and not really bad ones that might make you feel ill, just niggly ones, were all gone by the end of May, early June.
"I simply would not have been able to do the intensity of training that we have been doing if there had been any hangover.
"Rest was the cure in the end. I had to let my head sort itself out, settle down, and once that was done everything was fine."
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