England flanker Tom Curry is refusing to set a return date after undergoing major hip surgery that is expected to rule him out until next season.
Curry, 25, last played in the bronze final victory over Argentina at last autumn’s World Cup.
After that, he learned he needed a six-hour operation for arthritic change and tears to the labrum and cartilage.
The back row described the damage as “a car crash” but with the surgery deemed a success, he is making progress.
“In terms of coming back to play, I still don’t really know. It’s day by day,” Curry said.
“Every week it gets better and better. The tough thing is thinking too far ahead – and that’s why I need to take each day as it comes.
“Every day I’ll give it 100 per cent and be really grateful that I can do this and then we’ll see.”
He added: “If you take a step and your hip feels bad, your mood goes down. If you do that and your hip feels good, your mood goes up.
“So it is about trying to get rid of all that stuff and keeping it as simple as possible.”
England are expected to add Manu Tuilagi, Ollie Lawrence, George Martin and Luke Cowan-Dickie to their squad when they gather in south-west London for their Six Nations fallow week training camp later this week.
All four have been prevented from taking part in the opening two rounds of the tournament because of injury but will come into contention for the Calcutta Cup showdown with Scotland on February 24.