"Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet," mused Aristotle; "There is nothing stronger than these two; patience and time, they will do it all," wrote Tolstoy in War and Peace while 27-year-old Henriques realised after playing a rushed shot last summer "there's so many hours left in this game".

"Call it a hunger to score runs but it was like I just woke up; a light globe moment out in the middle when I thought 'I want to play this shot' but then thought 'oh, hang on, there's 30 overs to go'," he said of the moment he truly accepted the point of batting was to win the game for your team.

It seemed ironic that as Henriques extolled the virtues of patience he was engaged in an around-the-clock battle to play in this week's important Sheffield Shield match against South Australia at the SCG.

However, it said volumes for his "maturity" that Henriques wasn't prepared to rush his return from the calf injury that had required constant treatment since he tore it while batting in a domestic one-dayer almost five weeks ago to start his push for selection in Australia's World Cup squad.

"I retired straight away," he said wincing at the memory. "I didn't walk, I was assisted from the field, it's a tough injury and there's still a lot of work to do to get it back to where it was.

"I was on crutches for a week after it happened. The scans said it'd be five-to-six weeks to heal, it's been four-and-a-half now, and while I can still feel it's not quite 100 per cent when I run, we have to push the boundaries.

"No injury is ever a good injury but this was poor timing. I felt like I was playing good cricket when it happened. I missed playing in the final of the one-day  game, I've missed the opening shield games, which is disappointing because it denied [me] the opportunity to put my name forward . . . I wanted to consolidate on last summer's form, but that's cricket.

"I'm keen to return but I'm not pushing it too hard, I'd rather [injure the calf] once than twice in a row."

Henriques is different to the  cricketer who when he was called up for NSW at 19 and believed his life would be "complete" if he played a Test. The newfound acceptance that even a snail gets to it's destination or rivers know there's no hurry and that big innings are accumulated over long hours came to him in the lead-up to his selection for Australia's tour of India last year.

"I always felt as though I understood the game well," he said. "I could always tell you the right things to do as someone watching the game but when I was out there batting I'd make the wrong choices.

"I'd walk off after playing a shot too early and think 10 overs after the event 'there's so many hours left in this game'. It took me time to actually realise there's more time than you think when you're out and batting. I knew that when I was watching from the stands  but the challenge was keeping the adrenaline under tabs and absorbing the pressure.

"It's keeping control of the pressure so no matter what the scoreboard might be showing, or whatever spell the bowler is bowling, you realise things will always get easier the longer you stay out there. As a younger player I was concerned about scoring so many runs I probably lost a bit of the thought process in realising you have to just keep batting and get through it."

Henriques planned to make a push for Australia's World Cup  team when he's fit to rip and tear and while some say his all-rounder's skills could help Australia add a fourth title to it's trophy cabinet, he learned long ago words meant very little.

"I learned raps and what people say about you, and people will always talk you up at a young age, will only get you so far," he said. "Runs will get you the rest of the way."