Wounded Wallaby Nathan Sharpe has set his sights on returning for round one of next year's Super 14 season after receiving welcome news on the injury front.

Sharpe, who injured his shoulder in the Wallabies' Bledisloe Cup match against New Zealand in August, was resigned to spending up to six months out after it was deemed he needed to undergo a full reconstruction.

But when Sharpe went under the knife earlier this week the surgeon realised the damage wasn't as bad as first thought.

"It was funny going under the anaesthetic because the surgeon had said it could be a full reconstruction - which was six months, or the best case scenario two or three months, and I was not sure what I would have when I woke up," Sharpe said on Friday.

"I was pretty happy it would only be three months.

"I had a problem with a few tears in the shoulder muscle but my bicep muscle was also torn and it just kept popping out of place, which was causing me to lose a lot of strength through the shoulder.

"They have now stapled that which will take a few months to settle down and I'm pretty happy with that.

"As soon as the pain goes out of it I can start training ... if it was a full reconstruction things would have been very different."

Sharpe, who has 79 Tests to his name, has his sights set on returning for the Force's blockbuster round one clash with the Brumbies on February 12.

"I will have plenty of hard work to do in my rehab program, but since it will be my first pre-season training with the club I am ready to get stuck in and I am actually excited about it," he said.

While happy to avoid a shoulder reconstruction, Sharpe said he was bitterly disappointed to be missing out on the Wallabies' tour of Japan and the United Kingdom.

"No question I'd rather be on tour playing with the Wallabies, but that wasn't to be," he said.

Sharpe scoffed at talk there was tension amongst the Wallabies after Berrick Barnes got the nod as vice-captain ahead of Matt Giteau.

"What you want is a good group of senior players and it doesn't matter who has the C or VC next to his name, everyone pulls their own weight in different directions and Giteau has a big load already making calls around the field and calling the shots and it wasn't a big surprise to me," he said.

"The guys who have been put in those roles are going to do a great job."

The Force start pre-season training next Monday.

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