“They had to completely shatter my socket,” Sam Burgess says as, pointing at his x-rayed skull, his finger circles the black hollow of his right eye. Staring down at the image on his phone, Burgess relives the surgery that followed his greatest triumph when he played almost the entire 2014 Grand Final in Australia’s National Rugby League with a fractured cheekbone. The injury did not stop Burgess from inspiring the South Sydney Rabbitohs to their first NRL title in 43 years.

“There were complications in surgery and that’s why I was in hospital so long,” Burgess says as he remembers the operation which preceded the difficult days that marked his last two years. In that time Burgess switched codes and played for England in a disastrous 2015 World Cup before, amid controversy and vilification, returning to South Sydney and the sport he loves.

Burgess is now back in England, captaining his country in rugby league as they prepare for Sunday’s vital game against Australia. England and Burgess, after losing 17-16 to New Zealand and defeating Scotland in a mediocre display, have to beat Australia to stand any chance of qualifying for the Four Nations final. But, first, Burgess explains the physical hurt he suffered before his emotionally bruising time in union.

While he was unconscious on the operating table in October 2014 it was discovered that he had also fractured his eye socket. “I took another knock that no one really knew about and it wedged in here,” Burgess says, tracing the crack on the x-ray. “To fix it they had to be aggressive and shatter the socket. They then put mesh around it with five plates and 21 screws. It was only supposed to last an hour but I was in surgery for five and a half hours.”

Burgess flicks through more images of his bashed-up face. His right eye was swollen shut, and his cheekbone ballooned, but Burgess played so well in a crushing 30-6 defeat of the Canterbury Bulldogs he also won the prestigious Clive Churchill medal awarded to the man of the match. The resonance blurred because, soon afterwards, Burgess left for England and his audacious bid to excel in a sport he had never played before.

Two years later, less battered and a whole lot wiser, does Burgess, now 27, appreciate the magnitude of 2014? “I do feel it, yeah. I was walking down the street today and someone stopped me and started talking about that game. I’m in Birmingham and someone wants to talk about that 2014 Grand Final? It shows how wide an audience that game reached.”

Burgess seems gratified that attention should have reverted to his league exploits and away from the messy turmoil of last year. But does he wish he could have changed anything about his move to union, and the way he ended it so abruptly after the World Cup?

“Not really. I didn’t make a lot of decisions in union because I didn’t have much power. I still gave it everything. I was given a task at my club [Bath] to crack it as a six and we got to a Premiership final. I probably played one of my best games in that final but we lost to Saracens. I then got given the challenge to play 12 [for England]. There were four centres to be selected out of nine. I made the four which took a lot of dedication.”

Burgess’s time in union is often described as a symbol of everything that went wrong with England’s World Cup but those few sentences, charting his transition from novice to Premiership flanker to Test centre in less than a year, are a reminder that he did make headway in a foreign game. “People might forget I chased some serious goals. Fingers will always be pointed but deep down I wouldn’t change anything. The bottom line is that my heart didn’t lie there [in union] and I didn’t want to spend four more years doing something I didn’t quite love. People who want to dig will find out what really happened – but it won’t be me.”

Is he still in touch with Stuart Lancaster, England’s former supremo who is now an assistant coach at Leinster? “I am. I’ve spoken to Stuart three or four times since the World Cup on a friendship basis. We had a lot of respect for each other. We were in the firing line – me and him – and sometimes people forgot I was new in the game. There were lots of senior players in that team who had a lot of personality but, because of the height of media around me, it was easier for them to sit behind that.”

Did he and Lancaster become scapegoats? “I don’t like the word scapegoat. I actually don’t think anyone believed it was just down to me and Stuart.”

Burgess is still close to Owen Farrell, his fellow league advocate who moved south from Wigan when he was a boy and is now such an impressive presence in England’s resurgence under Eddie Jones. “I caught up with Owen for a coffee and had a beer with a few of the boys in Sydney [when England completed a 3-0 series whitewash of Australia in July]. “I’m really proud of Owen and how he dominated that series. He’s probably my strongest friend in union.”

Burgess has said before that, apart from his last Test when he came on as a substitute in a losing side against Australia, England were never behind when he was on the field. He now highlights his partnership with Farrell. “We had a great combination and were on a similar wavelength. Coming from league, he could understand what I was doing in games. He never took a cheap option. He’s a very honest player and that’s all you can ask for as an athlete.”

Would Farrell have been a success in the NRL had he remained in league? “No doubt about that. Deep down it’s an ambition he’d love to fulfil but his career in union is going so well.” Maybe Farrell could do a Burgess switch in reverse? “No,” Burgess says with a wry smile. “It would be a big call to make.”

Burgess is galvanised by his return to league and this weekend he will be hoping for another big victory. An England rugby league win over Australia has been an elusive ambition since 1995 when the home team included Jason Robinson, Martin Offiah and Shaun Edwards. On Sunday some of the key players from the 2014 Grand Final, which ruined his face but cemented his legacy, will feature at the London Stadium. Greg Inglis, the star Australian, is one of Burgess’s closest friends and team-mates at Souths while James Graham, England’s vice-captain, played for Canterbury when his head smashed into his fellow Englishman’s face.

There is a further twist in personnel because England are now coached by an Australian. Wayne Bennett is the most successful coach in league history and Burgess believes he could play a crucial role in England’s tilt against Australian supremacy. “I certainly think Wayne can be the difference. But he can only take us to the water. We need to drink from the trough. He can show us how to do things and make the difference between winning and losing but essentially we have to do it on the field. We’ve been asking a lot of them in training and I’m proud to say the boys are meeting the high standards Wayne demands.

“Against the Kiwis he was disappointed in the result but not in our effort. He thought we made some dumb plays which we all agreed with. We gave ourselves enough opportunities to win but didn’t take them. The Kiwis took their chances. It’s now up to us, under the new coach, to learn from those narrow defeats.”

New Zealand might be ranked world No1 but Australia remain the team to beat. “Australia have been formidable for years,” Burgess admits, “but we need to talk more about what we’re going to bring to the table rather than building them up to this heroic stature. Of course they’re a great team. They deserve every bit of respect and praise. But my team deserves respect too. We believe we can match them on the big stage.”

Burgess is aware of the need to use Sunday’s game in London to broaden the appeal of league across the country. “The win is the first aim but it’s really important we grow the game in the long term. We want to put on a good show in an iconic stadium in London.”

Last year, when England lost to New Zealand at the same stadium, a crowd of almost 45,000 included 65% of ticketholders from the south of England. “It’s certainly encouraging,” Burgess says. “Union is huge down there but it’s England-Australia and I hope people come and support us in what I believe is the world’s best sport. We’ll have a real crack at victory because to beat Australia would be huge for the game in England.”

Burgess will need to call on the resilience and spirit he found in himself and his Souths team-mates in 2014. His younger brothers, twins George and Thomas, are again alongside him with England – just as they were in the Grand Final. Last year Thomas told me how, during the game, Sam explained he was struggling and needed his brother’s support.

“I said that to about 10 people,” Burgess quips now. “The week before we played the Roosters and one of my team-mates, Ben Te’o [who now plays union in England] gave away a penalty. We were down 12-0. I said: ‘Ben what are you doing, man? Come on.’ He looked at me and said: ‘I am here for you today.’ I’ll never forget how powerful that felt. I thought: ‘Man, he really is committed for me today.’ In the final I was in trouble and I thought if I could hit the same nerve Ben had found with three or four guys we would optimise performance.

“There was real positive emotion that day – even though as soon as the cheekbone got hit I knew it was bad. I walked off at half-time and Phoebe [his girlfriend then and now his wife] was right near the tunnel and she hates it when I get hurt. She was looking at me and I said [Burgess lifts his hands helplessly]: ‘What can I do?’”

Of course, he went out and played the second half with the same fire and determination which won the Grand Final. But, apart from a few beers on the night of the match and before he was confined to hospital for weeks, Burgess laments that: “I missed everything! That whole year I didn’t have a beer. I didn’t go partying. I said I’ll do that when we win it – and then I won the thing and I didn’t get to party.”

Burgess smiles. He and Phoebe are expecting their first child early next year and, should England find a way to beat Australia on Sunday, a small party is certain. “That’s for sure,” he says, “but we’ve got a hell of a lot to do before then.”

• England play Australia on Sunday at London Stadium. Tickets are still available from www.rugby-league.com/tickets