Fit-again Mitchell has renewed 'fire in the belly'

Alex Mitchell has made 131 senior appearances for Northampton Saints after progressing from the academy

Northampton Saints scrum-half Alex Mitchell says he has renewed "fire in the belly" and wants to lead club and country to new heights after recovering from a neck injury.

Mitchell made his first appearance of the season from the bench in Saturday's Premiership defeat by Gloucester after missing the start of their title defence and England's entire autumn campaign.

The 27-year-old, who is expected to start in Saturday's opening Champions Cup game with Castres, wants to make up for lost time with next year's Six Nations not far away.

"The worst part to rugby is the injuries," Mitchell told BBC Sport.

"It's been very frustrating watching the games from the sidelines. You have to help the team off the field, but you always want to be playing and I'm so excited to be back.

"I have missed it so much. Sometimes when you're playing all the time your body can feel a bit tired and you might complain about things.

"You maybe don't appreciate it as much, but when you are sidelined it gives you a bit of fire in the belly again and more motivation.

"To have that adrenaline back and to be involved in game day is fantastic."

Mitchell scored the winning try as Saints landed the Premiership title in June and was England's first choice number nine on their summer tour of New Zealand before injury curtailed his progress during pre-season.

"The timing wasn’t ideal," he said. "I felt like I was in a good spot and it was such a random injury.

"I got a few bangs during the start of the week on Monday and Tuesday.

"I was fine on the Wednesday but I woke up on Thursday and I couldn’t move my neck. I rang the club doctor and he asked me to drive into the club.

"I was in quite a bit of pain in the car but I just thought it would be a spasm.

"It didn't seem to go away and I had to have a scan, which showed it was a bulging disc in my neck.

"I had to have a couple of injections on it and there was no timeline to recovery. The first injection didn't really work but the second one did, so it was frustrating because we didn't know the extent of the injury."

'We want to go one step further'

Mitchell's return to the fold will be a welcome boost for England's Six Nations plans and Saints, who are eighth in the Premiership table after an underwhelming start to the season.

Focus now changes to Europe this weekend and Northampton will want to shake off the disappointment of their narrow semi-final defeat by Leinster last season.

Saints have not won the Champions Cup since 2000 but Mitchell is targeting a place in next year's final at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff.

First comes the test against Castres.

"It's our first game in Europe which is very exciting," said Mitchell. "It's the biggest club competition with the best teams and the best players.

"We have been too inconsistent in the league. We've been really good for 40 minutes, showing why we are champions, and then had 40 minutes of being poor defensively or with our discipline.

"We want to go one step further in Europe and get to the final.

"It was a fantastic experience playing at Croke Park in front of that massive crowd [in last season's semi-final], but we were frustrated after the game because we could've beaten Leinster.

"We didn't put our best game out there and it was painful at the time but gives us the confidence to go again."