Mack Hansen bears no ill will over the injury that ruled him out of the Six Nations and is targeting a return to action before the end of the season.
The Ireland wing suffered a dislocated shoulder while playing for Connacht against Munster in the BKT United Rugby Championship at the start of the year.
"I'm kind of over halfway at the moment so maybe around May, hoping to get back," he told RTÉ Sport.
"Definitely before the end of the season but I'm not looking to push it, just looking to get it right and go from there.
"I’m itching to get back. [Watching from the sidelines] doesn’t get easier.
"You just want to be involved and play for your country. It’s why you play rugby, to get those opportunities to put the green jersey on. Being out is frustrating and it’s been tough, I’m not going to lie.
"I know there’s light at the end of the tunnel, so I’ll keep my head down and keep plugging along and get my shoulder back to near perfect and start playing rugby again."
Hansen (above) was attempting to poach the ball at a breakdown before Munster flanker John Hodnett appeared to come in from the side and clear out the Canberra man.
At the time, head coach Pete Wilkins suggested he was surprised the incident didn’t merit more scrutiny, more so given Connacht’s Byron Ralston was suspended for three matches for an attempted clear-out, which resulted in Jack O’Donoghue suffering a knee injury in the same game.
"It was pretty excruciating, pretty bad, it was out for a good while," the 25-year-old, who was pictured at Ireland training camp earlier in the week, said.
"It didn’t want to go back in for some reason. It was being a bit of a pain in the arse. Yeah, it was probably the worst injury I’ve had, to be honest.
"I’ve been lucky enough to not have too many big ones but to be sure that was by far the worst.
"I think it’s just part of rugby. There’s a pretty obvious difference between something that’s intentional and something that’s not.
"He was just trying to save me from poaching the ball off him. Looking back at it, I didn’t think it was with malicious intent, it was just him trying to do his job.
"The only thing I didn’t like from it was we had a guy who got a couple of weeks’ suspension for a pretty similar thing where he is just trying to do his job and the fellow pulled out and it was unfortunate to hurt his knee but it was the exact same thing, it was a part of rugby, a footy incident.
"It wasn’t anything with trying to injure, per se, he was just trying to do his job.
"I didn’t think that John deserved any weeks, but I didn’t think Byron did either, so just a bit of consistency with it, that’s all anyone looks for.
"If they thought mine was a lot worse, he probably would have got a card. At the end of the day, footy is footy, things happen."
Hansen, who has scored nine tries in 21 Ireland appearances, has been a regular under Andy Farrell since making his debut two years ago.
Ireland can wrap up a second consecutive Guinness Six Nations title with victory over Scotland on Saturday and the wing has backed his team-mates to bounce back from the disappointment of a one-point defeat to England that scuppered their Grand Slam chances.
He said: "It wasn’t our best game, everyone knows that, they know that themselves.
"There’s still a Six Nations title on the line, [people are talking] like we’re out of contention or something.
"We’re top of the table and still have a chance to lift a trophy and win some silverware.
"It makes for an exciting week and it’s another opportunity for these guys to show last week was just an off-day. Every team has it, it’s what sport is all about, you can’t be perfect all the time.
"It’s another week to show how great this team can be and bring home some silverware."
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