Greening: I'm out of the gutter

So to him, the story of how he has battled back to reclaim his place from Trevor Leota in the Wasps' starting XV has a "miraculous" feel to it.

On Sunday, he'll pack down as they open the defence of the Heineken Cup at home to Biarritz - and he swears the saga tells you everything about a remarkable spirit of togetherness that has forged European champions.

His woes began last November when he broke the seismoid bones on the ball of his left foot, the same injury which effectively ended Gary Lineker's football career.

At first, it wasn't clear exactly what the problem was but, buoyed by the prospect that he was about to be recalled to the England squad by Sir Clive Woodward, he battled through games on painkillers, even though he could barely walk during the week.

By January, it was impossible to carry on. He spent thousands of pounds of his own money visiting the best specialists in the world, including the unorthodox German doctor Hans Muller-Wohlfahrt and the American surgeon who had treated Lineker.

"They couldn't operate on it and none gave me more than a 40-60 chance of resuming my career," he said. "Worse still, I wasn't getting paid by the club any more. The insurers were saying that I'd been playing when I was injured so wouldn't pay out. As I fought the case with them, not a penny came in for five months."

With all his money tied up in property and the sports agency business he co-owns, he found himself in the weird position of needing hand-outs from team-mates to bail him out.

"Honest to God, they were even having to sub my tube fare home," said Greening.

"That's Wasps. It's like a family. I was so depressed but the lads were great to me, getting me involved in coaching stuff and trying to make me feel like a part of everything still, even when I was hobbling around in a plaster cast. I don't think I'd have got through it if I'd been at any other club.

"But it felt all over for me and that's scary. This sport's been my life ever since I left school and when you're with the same people every day and suddenly you're not around them, it makes you feel very alone."

Shaun Edwards, the club's old rugby league legend, would send him "poems and inspirational phrases about hope and never giving up" while Simone, Greening's first steady girlfriend for years, proved "my real tower of strength".

Coach Warren Gatland landed him a springtime job, coaching youngsters in Tobago. "There, I sort of found myself again, chilled out on the beach and got my hunger back for playing. I started to appreciate what I had and how humble I ought to be."

Meanwhile, after his global search for treatment, he found an inexpensive cure practically on his doorstep through the pioneering micro-current therapy treatment of Dr David Chapman-Jones, which had helped get David Beckham fit for the last World Cup finals.

"Now I'm just so happy again," he said. "In Simone, I've found someone who's fantastic, my nightclubbing days are gone and I'm much more homely and settled, my rugby's back on track and I've reached a settlement with the insurers. People are even telling me my name's been chucked around again for the England squad.

"I don't know about that because all I'm thinking about is that I'm cherishing every single day. Just to be able to run again, just to be blessed with a second chance, that's enough, that's wonderful."