Cokayne, who earned her first full-time Red Roses contract in 2019, will be 29 when the World Cup takes place in England in August and September next year.
A 2020-21 top-flight champion with Harlequins, the Provost Officer in the Royal Air Force has seen the sport become one requiring players to “commit your entire life to it”.
“We joke that we only get five weeks off a year and it’s all in one block,” she said.
“When I go on holiday, say, with my friends, I’ve got to do a running session four times a week and a gym session.
“They ask ‘why do you do it? we’re on holiday.’ It’s those things that differ your life.
“I’m more than happy to do that at the minute – but whether I’ll be more than happy to do that when I’m in my mid-30s, I’m not so sure.”
Having won the top division of the inaugural WXV in New Zealand in 2023, Cokayne has just returned from repeating the triumph in Canada.
“It’s still really new and finding its feet but it was really good,” she said of the three-tier competition between national teams.
“As players, the more fixtures we can get against the best teams in the world, the better.
“There was a lot of jetlag during the first week back, for sure. I was still very much living on Canada time, for a while.
“It was a bit of a shock when I came back to the dark cold of Leicester that we’ve had.”
