"In the moment you've got to stay professional and the play the occasion, but then afterwards it was just like 'oh my goodness' - I couldn't sleep afterwards, it was so good to be back," says Exeter tighthead Ehren Painter

The 28-year-old prop's road back to the rugby field has been an arduous one.

He returned in the Prem Rugby Cup loss to Bath on Saturday almost two years since he last wore a Chiefs shirt.

Painter badly damaged his cruciate knee ligament in a training ground injury in late December 2024.

"It was a nasty one because I had to have two surgeries and you have to pretty much fully rehab before the second one," Painter explains to BBC Sport.

"I had to fully rehab and also be completely non-weight-bearing as well, so I was on crutches.

"So trying to get strength back and trying to get your knee moving whilst not being able to lift weights, we had to do everything on the physio bed, so it did take time."

Painter moved to Exeter from Northampton in the summer of 2023 and had played 32 games in all competitions before being hurt.

His recovery was helped by some innovative work in a local gymnastics gym to help him re-learn how to run after such invasive surgery on his knee.

"I wasn't wearing a leotard," he joked.

"We did loads of sessions where it was simulating running, so I was actually accumulating a lot of aerobic fitness by doing a lot of rehab.

"It was using the gymnastics floor which is springy so there's a different force than normal ground, but it also means your muscles have to react.

"If you think about running it's a series of jumps, just like quick jump after quick jump, so we were pretty much breaking down that patterning and then going through running mechanics where I had to focus on my technique and the way I was firing.

"We were doing the fair bit of jumping but it wasn't balance beam stuff or the pommel horse."

Painter signed a new contract in May having got back to a state where he could play a couple of games on loan at Champ side Cornish Pirates.

Having had to bide his time over the first block of Prem matches, Painter hopes he can use Exeter's remaining cup games to begin to stake a claim for a place in the side when league action returns in December.

"For a long time I've been watching the other tighthead boys, every single one of them, just level up, level up, level up and they've just been going so well," he added.

"It's my job to close the gap, and luckily I've been getting the opportunity to play.

"With the defeat at the weekend that kind of 'oh I'm back' excitement is now parked, it's now 'I know what I need to do', and then from there put myself in a position to play well and then each week see what happens.

"I've just got to keep chasing those boys and almost get my old self out and then work on it again because rugby has moved on in two years.

"The way we've played has moved on, so I need to catch up quickly."