And while his Scotland teammates have been busy making history with a series defeat of Argentina, Paterson has returned to training with an Edinburgh squad made up mainly of academy players.

But the 32-year-old maintains his hunger is as strong as ever and he is determined not to end his international career on a sour note.

He said: “All I wanted throughout my career was to get to 100 caps and now I am just desperate to get off it.

“It was such a strange injury for a rugby player. I was told it would take three months to regenerate for a normal life but that is different to it being ready for a rugby game.

“I have done a lot of rehab though and I am confident I will be ready for the first pre-season game with Edinburgh.

“The international guys have only just come back to training until then it was just me and 15 academy boys.

“Scotland are definitely on the up again and I think there’ s far more respect in rugby for us. All the top ten can beat anyone else and we are part of that group now.”