After spending most of the 2014/15 season on the sidelines after surgery on a knee injury, Ed Slater says he can't wait to get back to work when England's training squad reports for duty next week.Leicester Tigers club captain Slater, 26, suffered the knee injury on tour with England in the summer of 2014 and came back in time to play in the last three games of the Aviva Premiership season, as well as starting in the England XV against the Barbarians at Twickenham at the end of May.   “From three weeks after the surgery last summer, I’ve been at the club pretty much full time and it is pretty intense, so it is nice to get through to the summer and have that rest before you go again,” said Slater.   “You have a lot of ups and downs after a big injury like that. It’s hard not to get yourself into some dark places when you’re watching from the sidelines for a long period, especially as it was my first year as Tigers club captain and I wanted to make an impact on the pitch rather than sitting watching.   “As the season went on I thought I wasn’t going to get a game. We had a few conversations about it but after a couple of weeks in full training I felt all right and it changed my mind. I had hurdles I still had to get over in training and when I did that I felt good.   “I did the full two weeks of training before the Wasps match and said I was ready if they felt I was needed.   “To be back in there and getting ready to play was a big change from nearly nine months of rehabbing the injury and watching on TV or from the sidelines!   “It was great to get back, even for the last few games, just to be back in the squad and be around the changing room again. It’s difficult when you’re injured, I didn’t like to be around the changing room after games because I felt it was just another body that was unnecessary.   “Hopefully I can now stay injury free and have a really good World Cup camp and see where we are.”   Slater joins the England training squad with club colleagues Dan Cole, Ben Youngs and Tom Youngs when they report next Monday for the start of the countdown to the Rugby World Cup.