Saracens flanker Jacques Burger says he’s in the best condition he’s been in for three years and now wants to prove he can be trusted to wear the number seven shirt in the biggest games this season.

Burger is close to completing a long and painful recovery from a knee injury which has kept him out of action for just over two years.

The 30-year-old is easing back into full pre-season training ahead of the new season but Burger insists he doesn’t just want to make up the numbers.

He is determined to get back to his best form and prove he is ready to be picked for the Men in Black’s most important matches again.

“Firstly I need to work my way back into the team,” Burger said. “The guys are playing really well – unfortunately Will [Fraser] got injured towards the end of last season having had a really good season.

“We’ve got a lot of back rows and guys fighting for the number seven jersey which I would like to make mine again.

“I want to get out there in the starting line-ups and prove to the coaches they can start trusting me again, trusting me to be a key player in the biggest matches.

“And then it’s just about working hard on my form, it’ll come with time, I’m lucky that I still want it, I want to work hard for it, there’s no problem with my work rate or motivation it’s just about getting the rust out of my body and back to my best.”

Having made his long-awaited comeback for the Men in Black against London Wasps in April, Burger is still taking things slowly but the likeable Namibian insists his knee is feeling stronger.

“It’s pretty good, it’s the definitely the best my knee has been in three years so I'm very excited to get going,” he said. “I started running three weeks ago and it feels pretty good so I'm very excited for the season to start.

“It’s one of those things, it’s a matter of time and it takes a while for it to get strong and a lot of hours for it to get better.”

Burger admitted to feeling nervous when he took to the field for the first time in 14 months against Wasps and when asked if he felt more confident now, he said: “I’m definitely a lot more confident. When I came back a couple of months ago I was still feeling a lot of pain, I had certain areas where I was very restricted and I struggled a bit.

“It was up and down – some days it was really good, some days it was really bad – whereas now I feel really confident.

“I still feel a little bit hesitant on certain movements but it’s just my body getting used to it all again, getting used to moving certain ways I haven’t done for a while. It’s all about time, there’s still going to be a lot of training sessions before I get to where I want.

“The aim is to get back for the warm-up games, if I can play a couple of warm-up games before the season starts it’ll do me a lot of good, just to get my form back and get the sharpness back to where it’s supposed to be.”

More than anything else however, Burger is just happy to be back amongst the action.

“It’s very exciting to know the season is going to start and hopefully I’ll be right for the beginning. I can’t wait - I just want to get out there and start playing rugby.

“I want to get out of the gym, I feel like a cyclist at the moment, I'm on a bike all the time so it would be nice to get out there and throwing a ball about again.”