One injury can be all it takes to derail even the most promising athletic career.
As well as the obvious physical toll it takes on your body, there is a serious mental aspect to any recovery program.
Even with the best treatment available, setbacks are common for professional and rehabilitation is often a lonely experience. No one knows this better than Wales and Toulon fullback Leigh Halfpenny.
A veteran of two British and Irish Lions tours, Halfpenny has been out of action since September after rupturing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee against Italy in the final warm up game before last year’s World Cup.
While his team-mates were out on the field putting together their fifth win over France in a row last weekend, Halfpenny was under the stadium rehabbing the knee injury which put an end to his World Cup campaign before it even began.
We caught up with the 27-year-old to see how his recovery is going.
https://youtu.be/xoPYTdeir4g
JOE: Could you give us any update on your recovery? How’s it going?
Leigh Halfpenny: Yeah the knee’s coming along well, thanks. So five and a half months now post-surgery and it’s been going well. It’s been a long time with the rehab. Now I’m starting to get back into running and kicking and basically just getting back in again. There’s a lot more.
Initially there was a lot of rehab with training and fitness training. But on top of that now is sort of the skill element of getting back what I learned – kicking, passing, tackling; all of the skills required to play rugby. So I’m working towards hopefully getting back playing soon.
Do you have a time-frame for when you might be back or is it still a bit too early to say?
At this stage, all I know is that I’m due to see the surgeon at my six month mark post-op. I have an appointment with him and we’ll see what he says and we’ll go from there.
Honestly, with the injury and not being able to play and things, it’s great to see the guys do so well in the World Cup and now in the Six Nations.
There’s a part of me that wishes I was out there but at the minute I just need to get over the injury and try to turn it into a positive so I see it as an opportunity to work on my game, work on my conditioning and fitness and try to improve areas of my game so when I am back playing, I’m ready to go.
How mentally taxing is it to have to come back from such a long time out?
Not having played for however long the injury has been at this point, you just try to prepare yourself as best you can so that when you do return to playing you’re ready. I’m just working hard on my conditioning and my fitness and re-training. I’m working hard on the skills now.
It’s watching, on the computers, the analysis and watching games and things and just trying to get back into focusing mentally on getting back playing. Whenever I’m due to be back playing, I can’t wait to get back out onto the field.
Do you have a different diet then for when you’re in recovery compared to when you’re playing week-in, week-out?
For me, to be honest, it stays relatively the same. I constantly have to eat well to keep my weight. I’m constantly having a good diet; a lot of carbs, a lot of protein, fresh vegetables, plenty of water, staying hydrated, your recovery shakes after training and things like that. I pretty much kept the same diet when I’ve been training as I have when I’m playing, really.
To begin with, I wasn’t sure of the extent of the injury but soon I came to realise it was a pretty serious one. It is a long period of recovery and rehab, and you know the surgeon said it can take up to between six to nine months to recover.
So obviously next year there’s the Lions tour coming up. How important have your two previous tours been for you, in terms of what you’ve learned?
Yeah they’re great. The two tours that I’ve been on with the Lions have been amazing tours and I’ve just had the best time of my life on them. It’s a pretty unique tradition – it only happens every four years – and the history of the Lions is just massive.
When you’re on the tour, you can feel the buzz around the place and it’s just red everywhere you look. You meet some pretty special people and fantastic players. Everyone on the tour, they’re just all special people and I feel very privileged to have been on the two tours that I’ve done.
Was there an extra level of competitiveness between yourself and Jonny Sexton over who got to be the kicker?
We just went about our training and practice as usual, and it was down to the coach’s decision then. All the kickers after training practiced together and it was great. It was a special tour, a special occasion.
Final question then: have you ever thought about a move to the NFL as a kicker once your rugby career is over to try and get another two or three years out of it?
Oh god I haven’t thought about that to be completely honest. I’m just focused on training. I love playing rugby. Right now my focus is just on getting the knee right and getting back playing and we’ll see what happens from there.
Leigh Halfpenny is actively participating in #RuleYourself, the 24/7 training campaign on ‘what you do in the dark that will put you in the light’. For more information, follow @UnderArmourUK
