CORNELL du Preez said he would “love” to extend his stay at Sixways after Worcester Warriors looked after him during his long road to recovery.

The powerful back-rower joined Warriors from Edinburgh last summer only to sustain a “traumatic” throat injury in his first competitive game for the club.

After six weeks in hospital and many months on the sidelines du Preez returned to action in March and he is now a key man in Warriors’ pack.

The Scotland international, whose deal expires at the end of this season, revealed he had yet to hold contract talks with the club’s bosses but expressed his desire to remain at Warriors.

“The club looked after me really well which I am grateful for and I love it here,” du Preez told the Rugby Paper.

“My contract is up this season so we will see what happens when we get into talks.

“But I would love to stay because it feels like we have got a group of players here who can really achieve things.”

There were fears du Preez might not play again when he damaged his voice box and fractured his Adam’s apple against Wasps in September last year.

But thanks to treatment at Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham and the efforts of Warriors’ fitness coaches the 28-year-old returned to the game.

“It was a pretty traumatic injury I had, especially at the beginning when everything happened and there were rumours I might not be able to carry on,” du Preez said.

“It was an injury you don’t see a lot and there were a lot of grey areas.

“But as time goes on you begin to feel much better.

“Eventually the specialists said I was all good to play again so that was a pretty good feeling.

“Returning to play was not too bad because I had taken a few blows in contact training so with the specialists saying everything was fine I have just got on with it again.

“It is just my voice that is a little deeper now so I will be good for doing some voice overs perhaps!

“But it feels special to get a second chance — I am just very grateful for that.”

Du Preez made his comeback in the European Challenge Cup quarter-final loss to Harlequins before playing in Warriors’ final five Premiership matches.

“There was no pressure from (director of rugby) Alan Solomons,” du Preez said.

“From the beginning he just told me to take my time and when I thought I was ready to play again he would give me a chance and take it from there.”

Du Preez won the last of his six caps for Scotland in February 2018.

When asked about his international hopes the powerhouse back row said he had “something to prove” but stressed his focus was on performing well at Warriors.

“After my injury I just wanted to play again so missing the World Cup wasn’t that disappointing,” du Preez said.

“But in the future who knows? It may happen again.

“First things first I need to perform for Worcester and whilst we did not finish where we wanted to last season we are in pretty good shape now.

“We have got a lot of competition across the squad in all positions which will ensure everybody’s on their toes.”

Worcester sit second in the table after their season-opening 24-16 victory over Leicester Tigers at Sixways last Saturday.

“Personally it is just good to be back fully fit and able to play,” said du Preez who started at number eight.

“It is exciting. We have got high expectations of ourselves to get into the top six this season and whilst that is always difficult in such a competitive league that is one of our big goals.”