Getting something off his chest.
Jonathan Joseph injured a pectoral muscle in England’s World Cup opener against Fiji. He knew the injury was bad but it took him about a month to discover it was that bad.
The centre missed the damaging defeat to Wales but managed to get back for the games against Australia and Uruguay.
“I missed Wales and then hit all my targets lifting in the gym,” Joseph told reporters. “I did everything needed as far as reaction work was concerned, strapped it and managed to play against Australia and Uruguay with no dramas.
“When I got back to Bath, they had a little play with it. I had felt something in there during the Uruguay week but wasn’t too concerned.
“Bath had it scanned and in fact I only had about a third of the muscle still attached. Although I could feel it against Australia and Uruguay, it wasn’t too bad. I was aware of it, it was strapped but I managed to tackle all right.
“It was a World Cup and I was going to do everything I could to play. Obviously, I wasn’t aware that there was only one third attached.”
That’s right – only one third of his chest muscle was attached. Grim, grim stuff.
