Tindall storms back after injury horror

Since spending five days in intensive care with a punctured lung and a two-inch tear in his liver, England's battered centre has forced himself into contention for Gloucester's European Cup quarter-final against Munster at Kingsholm on Saturday.

He has not played since being accidentally kicked by a Welsh boot at Twickenham on February 2.

"We were very concerned for Mike at the time," said Gloucester head coach Dean Ryan. "I spoke to him the next day so we were aware of the severity of the injuries at an early stage. Those first two or three days were very serious for everyone concerned.

"Nobody had any way of knowing then how long it would take him to recover. Opinions varied from 'this guy will never play rugby again' to 'yes he will, but it will take a year', and then to six weeks. It was such an unusual injury that we looked at other sports where it tends to happen more often, like mountain bike riding, to see how they coped.

"Mike wasn't allowed to do anything for four to six weeks but, once we were over the initial uncertainty, we always hoped he could be in with a chance for the Munster match.

"People break themselves and put themselves back together and then they think about playing again. That's the nature of the business."

Tindall, 30 later this year, has been back in full contact training for three weeks, not wasting a day to repair the damage to his reputation as 'Iron Mike'.

It is a tribute to his resilience and importance that he should be under serious consideration for a match which offers Gloucester the chance of beating the 2006 European champions and reaching the semi-finals for only the second time.

"We'll make the decision over the next few days," said Ryan. "We've pushed him in the last few weeks so now it's a case of 'how do you feel and can you contribute?'.We'd love it if he could. We miss him when he's not playing. There's no doubt about that."

The injuries left Tindall 'happy to be alive' after recovering from internal damage which prompted fears for his survival.

"I was never near death," he said. "I was never too worried. I've know where I've been all along.

"I don't think it was ever a case of an inch either way and I would have been dead. An inch either way and I wouldn't have even got injured was more to the point."

Ryan's decision will be less about Tindall's inclusion among the 22 and more about whether to start with him on the bench or in his familiar position at outside centre.

If he starts, England full back Iain Balshaw, redeployed on the wing since Olly Morgan's return at No 15 but injured at Worcester last weekend, could lose out with James Simpson-Daniel reverting from centre to wing.

Still only 25, 'Sinbad' is one of the few survivors of the so-called 'Miracle Match' at Thomond Park in January 2003 when Munster gave Gloucester both barrels, turning a 35-16 beating at Kingsholm earlier that season into a 33-6 rout which sent them storming into the last eight.

"I was embarrassed by the size of the thumping," Simpson-Daniel said. "That's one game I would like to put a line through, if I could.' Simpson-Daniel was just 18 when Gloucester lost their only previous semi-final, to Leicester at Watford seven years ago. Now he believes the Guinness Premiership leaders must prove they are one of Europe's big teams.

"One Heineken Cup semi-final in 12 years is not a good stat for a club of this stature,' he said. 'Beating Munster would be huge for us. If we can nick a result, it would be treated like we'd just won a cup final.

"Everyone knows that our biggest fear now is to be sat in the changing room afterwards, thinking, 'why didn't we do this, why didn't we try that?'. We don't want to be saying that. We want to be saying, 'we gave it everything we've got'. If we do that, there ought not to be any regrets."