Jack Nowell Suffers World Cup Blow after Knee Surgery Return Delayed

Exeter Chiefs and England winger Jack Nowell has suffered a blow in his attempts to win a World Cup call-up in 2015 after revealing he will miss the start of the season following knee surgery.

Though the World Cup is still 13 months away, Nowell missed the summer tour to New Zealand and the postponement of his return after going under the knife could jeopardise his participation in the autumn series.

England coach Stuart Lancaster's World Cup squad is expected to be made up significantly of players who feature in both the autumn international series against New Zealand, South Africa, Samoa and Australia and the Six Nations championship next year.

And with Nowell missing the first chance to impress, the 21-year-old is keen to return to full fitness as soon as possible.

"I'm not going to have this chance again to have all this time off, so I'm going to make sure I'm 100% before I'm back on the pitch," he told BBC Radio Devon.

"It's gone really well and I'm feeling really fit, I trained this week for the first time and it was nice to get back out there with the boys.

"My knee has always been in the back of my mind when I've been playing.

"But now that I've had this operation there's a new confidence that I've been given. When I'm in the gym squatting, I couldn't do it before, whereas now I'm lifting the most weight I've ever done.

"Stuart Lancaster says he's going to pick the people who are on form for their clubs. So I need to get my Exeter shirt back and perform as well as I was last year, that's the first thing I need to do."