Danny Cipriani has revealed he has linked up with Jonny Wilkinson's long-time mentor Steve Black as he aims to reboot his career.

After a difficult first season at Sale, the fly-half has been a key player in the Sharks' promising start to this campaign and has even led observers such as Sir Clive Woodward to urge Stuart Lancaster to end Cipriani's international exile.

The 26-year-old, though, has been keen to avoid the sort of hype that followed his early career and has instead focused on being the best athlete, player and person he can be since teaming up with Black.

"I think things are going a lot better – both personally and with the team," Cipriani told MEN Sport. "I've got a good stable of people around me including Steve Black, who has been a really big help over the past six months with me. He still works with Jonny over in Toulon and I see him once a week and we talk almost every other day and having someone like Steve around really does help.

"At Wasps I had Shaun Edwards and he was that type of person for me. Steve acts like a mentor and it's about life, it's about the game, about how you prepare, about becoming the best athlete you can be – it's about all sorts really to make sure that you are putting yourself in the best position to perform the best you can each week.

"Sometimes perhaps I've let things frustrate me with things you can't control a bit too much. That's a key part of what Blackie does in terms of clearing my mind and being able to focus on what you can control. He is incredible in how he helps."

There is a feeling that this time around familiarity has bred content as far as Cipriani and Sale are concerned.

Cipriani's first campaign came to a nadir in front of a bus in Leeds on Sale's now infamous team night out at the end of the season, when he damaged his cruciate ligament and was taken to hospital. He now says the fallout from the incident also helped him refocus his life and career.

"Obviously it was a situation where it could have been a lot more serious and could have cost me my life and luckily I only came out with an ACL injury," Cipriani added ahead of Sale's game against Worcester on Friday night.

"Having that makes you refocus. The immediate focus was on getting fit and I had a very successful pre-season and came back looking to be a better athlete.

"It also reminds you that it's a short career. I reckon I've probably got nine or 10 years left in me, so it's about making these next years ahead of me the best.

"I think we are definitely growing as a team and there's an understanding but there's another 40% where we can improve and get better.

"Week in, week out I do feel very confident out on the field and I want to keep going forward. We've got a big game tomorrow against Worcester and it's important that we win to put ourselves in the top half of the table."