England and Bath back Anthony Watson says he feels "better than ever" heading into the Rugby World Cup following his injury nightmare.
Watson is hopeful of making his comeback at Twickenham against Wales on Sunday - live on Sky Sports Action - in the first of four warm-up games ahead of their first World Cup match against Tonga on September 22.
The Bath wing last featured for his country in England's 24-15 defeat to Ireland in the 2018 Six Nations campaign, during which he ruptured an Achilles tendon.
But after being named in Eddie Jones' 33-man squad to face Wales, Watson is keen to make up for lost time.
He told Sky Sports: "It's been a great few weeks back in the camp, just mixing with the lads again has been nice, but we're at the business end of it now and this is when we'll push on. We've got the games coming up now, which is what we all play for so we're just excited for the week ahead.
"Treviso was particularly hard. We started off with a lot of fitness work, so we were pretty much blowing from start to finish. It was something like 75-80 per cent humidity over there, and 30-odd degrees, so that was very tough, getting used to the heat and trying to recover to play again the next day.
"It was a great two weeks to be fair, it was tough but it was very rewarding."
Watson was a regular starter under Jones prior to his setback, and the versatile back played a lot of rugby prior to suffering his injury, including the 2017 British and Irish Lions' tour of New Zealand.
The 25-year-old has overcome two operations on his troublesome Achilles injury which ruled him out for over a year, and Watson hopes his fitness troubles are behind him.
"I'm very happy with where I'm at," he added. "I spent a long time on the sidelines, and I wanted to make sure that when I came back, I was in as good a shape if not better.
"You've got to try and turn it into a positive. A lot of boys have played a lot of rugby, and I come into it perhaps a bit fresher, and not as beat up as some of the other boys. I'm just happy to be back competing with these guys.
"I feel like I've made a lot of gains in other areas of my body whilst I was out, so I'm delighted to be back, and I feel better than ever really."
After taking on Wales in their first Quilter International on Sunday, England also face Ireland (August 24) at Twickenham and Italy (September 6) in Newcastle as part of their Summer Internationals as well as an away fixture against Wales (August 17) in Cardiff, all on Sky Sports.
Watson believes that the next four weeks will reveal a lot to head coach Jones and his staff, and while performances are important, building a winning mentality is key following this year's Six Nations.
"Every time you put the England shirt on you want to win, and that's definitely the focus. There's no prizes for coming second so we want to win these games.
"There's progress to be made. We're not 100 per cent delighted with where we're at and there's definitely improvements that can be made but I think they'll come. Everyone's excited and we'll find out a lot in these next four weeks."