The Durham and England fast bowler has endured an injury nightmare with three operations on his troublesome left ankle inside 12 months to October last year.

A further setback this summer following the South Africa Test at Trent Bridge necessitated a string of painful injections in his ligaments and meant he was robbed of the chance to prove his fitness in time for Ashes selection.

Despite losing Alastair Cook early on, Mark Stoneman and James Vince steadied the ship for England as they got the visitors past the 100-run mark.

It is a catalogue of trouble that would have downed a lesser character, but now Wood is back in the nets and with the Lions here in Brisbane, to a point where he believes he is back close to full fitness.

“I am getting there. I’d say I’m about 80 per cent. My action feels good, but I’ve got no overs under my belt. The more I bowl in training, the more I bowl in games, I’ll get there,” he said.

“I am playing against Queensland for the Lions starting on Monday and then we head to Perth. I’ve heard numerous things about the WACA nets so I’m looking forward to that.

“And if I can build it up and then impress in those WACA nets, then hopefully I can play some part in the series. It would be a pretty good dream to play at the MCG on Boxing Day.”

Being on the fringes of the squad as they prepare for the biggest tests of their career this week at The Gabba has been an uncomfortable spot for Wood, who admitted it was “tough” not to be a part of it.

“It was nice to see everyone but hard to be on the edge of things and not amongst it. It is obviously a huge occasion for everyone,” he said.

But it was nothing compared to the dark days and locked in a cycle of rehab and relapse that have marked the last two years of a career that has been restricted to 10 Tests since his debut against New Zealand in 2015.

“It has been hard,” he said. “I’ve done a lot of work with the England psychologist but there were times when I thought I wouldn’t get back to playing for England.

“And then, when I do get back, I wanted to stay there. So it has been immensely frustrating.

“Every operation I had, I came back thinking it was mighty tough with the rehab but this last year I found more mentally hard than anything being in a battle with myself.

“I’ve always been a free-spirited sort of guy, just run in and bowled, but this year I had more on my mind to think about.”

The sugar injections may have brought tears to the eyes – “I should be tough from up north,” he joked – but they are designed to tighten existing ligaments in order to lessen his reliance on tape for support.

“It basically messes up your ligament, scars it up and when it heals it heals itself tighter,” said Wood. “It’s a horrible injection. I had five or six weeks off, which put me in a position where I wasn’t fully fit but building it up here.”

Wood did his best to make his England colleagues uncomfortable in the nets by way of preparation for what they will face in the series. But he hopes to join them in the dressing room before long.

“I’m still hoping that at some point I might be part of it,” he said. “It is a long series. If there is an injury, I’m hoping to be raring to go.

“I’m not here to put any of the lads under pressure. I’ve had enough injuries myself to know you don’t want people to go through that. But if there is an injury I might be in the background and here with the Lions doing well and I can just slot in.”