"Because I've had a long lay-off I look at things differently, " he says. "I'm more aware if I'm not feeling right.

I'll speak to the coaches and take a step back whereas in the past I might have played."

It does not quite give the lie to the recent player survey in England which reported two thirds of players had been coerced to play while injured, and Shanklin confirms there is peer pressure from all sides.

But he is glad that at Cardiff he has two coaches, Dai Young and Rob Howley, who are on his side. "They were players not so long ago and know that a lot of training can aggravate injuries.

They want me able to play at 100 per cent at the weekends and I'm the same. When the team train twice a day, I only do one of those sessions to lower the impact on my knee.

There are things that I can't do in weight-training but there are exercises you can do to work around that."

Shanklin appears to be a typical 26-year-old rugby professional in that he has had multiple injury problems. He made his senior debut as a teenager at London Welsh, and when he moved up a division to Saracens in the Premiership in 1999 his first season was disrupted by ankle and calf injuries.

In February 2001 he took a knock to his leg in training and a severe haematoma raised brief fears of amputation. In 2003 he joined the newly-born Cardiff Blues and by April 2005 the wear and tear on his knee cartilage necessitated an operation.

But the Lions tour of New Zealand was looming and he wanted to be on it.

"I came back too quickly, " says Shanklin, "but anyone in the same position would have done the same. After three games in New Zealand there was obviously something wrong because I had the knee drained twice and it still swelled up." He came home . . . wounded mentally, too, because Brian O'Driscoll's injury had opened a window of opportunity in the centres . . . and had a second operation to clear out loose cartilage and artificially create a layer of protective scar tissue. What ought to have been the start to his 2005-6 season against Wasps precisely a year ago today was almost the end. "I wasn't running right, the knee felt sore and it wouldn't settle afterwards. It wasn't the rugby contact, it was the running: the impact my shin bone was having on my thigh bone.

That's when I saw the doctors and they said it was something pretty serious."

Shanklin was told his career might be over.

Reluctantly, he made himself aware of the extent of the insurance payout. Professional players in Wales are covered by a package fully funded by the Welsh Rugby Union, with a flat £90,000 payable for a career-ending injury. If they are internationals there is a staged enhancement, dependent on age: £112,000 at age 29 or above, £187,000 at 26 to 29, £250,000 up to 25.

Richard Harry, chief executive of the Welsh Rugby Players' Association, says:

"We have worked hard to provide a base level of cover, but I urge every one to add to it.

The players need to recognise the real risk the game has." The same message is given by the PRA in England, where the maximum pay-out for a career-ending injury is £120,000 to an England elite squad member in his 20s, falling on a sliding scale to £25,000 for a club player over 33. Yet there are scores of PRA members who have no top-up insurance.

Phil Newton, of football's sports rehabilitation centre at Lilleshall, bemoaned last week that no rugby players had used his centre's services . . . possibly on the basis of cost.

But Shanklin says he has had good treatment. "Mark Bennett, the Wales fitness coach, has been like a personal trainer. And the Blues and Wales train at facilities where you can do rehab work at the same time."

Asked what he would do if not playing rugby, he makes it plain he will cross that bridge when he comes to it. "I did some part-time work for Brains brewery. I would like to say it was as a taster, but it was more on the marketing side. That kept me busy so I didn't have time to sit around and think 'what if?'" Shanklin is no shrinking violet. His game is noted for its aggression, for his full-on running and simple distribution. But he says a six-month season would make more sense, albeit that "nothing will happen until a lot of players break down". Surely Wales have been there, suffered from that, in their wretched defence of the Six Nations title last season, ruined by injuries to more than half the first-choice team.

With a much improved pre-season behind him it is a fresher, more hopeful Shanklin who is looking forward today to a first re-match with Saracens since he left, in the Anglo-Welsh Cup at Watford. The Blues, having beaten Wasps first time out and with London Irish at home to come, fancy a tilt at the trophy.

"We got rid of a lot of the deadwood in the summer, " says Shanklin. "People who turned up to training and didn't really care if we won or lost have been replaced with people who are keen or youngsters coming up from the academy. You want players who, if they're not picked, their heads aren't going to drop."

Players like Tom Shanklin, in other words. "I never want to get dropped, " he says, adding: "I will be starting today. I'm the only fit centre we've got."

ANGLO-WELSH CUP SARACENS v CARDIFF BLUES Vicarage Road, 6.10