KAI Horstmann has endured an injury-hit start to the current season, but the Warriors back-rower believes that has helped him get into tip-top shape.

The knee injury which sidelined the former England Saxon earlier this term restricted him to working in the gym and he is reaping the benefits.

The 27-year-old, who has recently signed a new three-year deal with the club, said: “On a personal level it has been a little on and off for me this season so far.

“At the start of the campaign it was frustrating but, after the injury, I feel I got six weeks rehabilitation and doing a lot of gym and conditioning work. I feel a lot better for it and feel in good nick at the moment.

“It has been a while since I had a long lay-off. I have been pretty lucky with injuries.

“I had a shoulder injury a year ago but apart from that I haven’t really had any time out so to have this spell out was a little bit foreign for me and weird at first.

“But it meant I almost had a mini pre-season during the campaign which is really good as you get to do lots of conditioning unlike the guys who play week in and week out.”

The Zimbabwe-born forward admits the Saracens defeat took the wind out of Worcester’s sails somewhat, but added the players are determined to bounce back.

He said: “We seemed to be shooting ourselves in the foot a lot at the start of the season which was hugely frustrating because we knew in ourselves that opportunities were there to win games.

“It wasn’t so much the opposition doing great things to win games, but us putting pressure on ourselves which made life hard.

“Sale was really good for us and it has been a really good place for us to go up to the last few years.

“You could tell in the New-castle game that we had a bit more confidence, although I didn’t feel we played that well.

“To not play that well and win pretty convincingly was encouraging.

“Unfortunately, when we played Saracens we were flat and naive, they executed better than we did.

“It means there is still a lot more to come from the team — we are still trying to find our feet as a unit.

“That is good in terms of the fact we know we still have 15 per cent in us to raise the bar, that has got to be encouraging.

“After a game like Saracens, everyone is really frustrated and we just want to get back into the Guinness Premiership and put things right.”