Jonathan Davies takes positive attitude after World Cup blow
Thursday 28 May 2015 17:23, UK
Sky Sports columnist Jonathan Davies discusses dealing with the injury that has ruled him out of this year's World Cup, and what he will be doing with his time away from the game...
First off I’d like to thank everyone that got in touch after news of my injury broke. I was on the Eurostar at the time and my phone lit up with messages from all over. This whole thing is a tough pill to swallow but the way the rugby community has come out to show their support has been incredibly humbling and genuinely appreciated.
My World Cup is over and of course I’m devastated, but the reality is there are bigger problems out there. There's always the temptation in these situations to feel like a little bit of a victim, but that's not fair – there's a lot worse happening to others around the world.
There’s always going to be someone worse off than you, so I will take a dodgy cruciate ligament and move right along.
The only thing that bothers me about all this is the thought of going in for surgery and seeing Jamie Roberts in his doctor’s coat just as the anaesthetic takes its hold. If I see that, then I’ll say life’s not fair!
'Precautionary'
The injury itself seemed to come from nothing really. I got the ball in the midfield, broke and stepped the last defender to go over for a try. I felt something go when I stepped off my foot, but after a little treatment the pain subsided and I was able to play on.
At half-time the physio pulled me off, but it was just a precautionary measure because right then they weren't too sure what kind of injury it was. I wasn’t all that worried about it at that time.
Winning that game meant Clermont finished second in the table, so we all had a few extra days off because we miss the quarter-finals. I used the time to travel home and saw the Wales team physio in Cardiff. He could feel some looseness in the ligaments so we had a scan and when the scan came back it showed a tear.
I went over to London to see a surgeon and he confirmed that while the rest of my knee is fine, the cruciate ligament is ruptured.
The weird part about all this is that I'm walking around fine right now, and if you asked me to run I likely could - the knee feels alright. But even when you’re feeling fine, you always have a horrible feeling in your stomach whenever you have to see a surgeon. It’s always the words of one of them that condemns you to the full extent of your injury, and that’s when you start dealing with the repercussions of it.
World Cups don't come round that often but your body is your primary asset and you really need to look after it, so although it was a tough decision, I know it's the right one.
There was an option to fix it through rehab instead of surgery and see how it felt, but the danger there is that you end up doing even worse damage to the rest of your knee. Initially there were talks for me going in that direction, but after seeing the surgeon and hearing the words he used, it made me realise that I needed to make a decision with my head rather than my heart.
World Cups don't come round that often but your body is your primary asset and you really need to look after it, so although it was a tough decision, I know it's the right one.
Positives
Whenever a player is injured there's always advice coming from both club and country about the best way to move forward. Because there are two different camps who want to look after their own interests it can happen that the player will feel caught up in the middle.
To the credit of the Wales and Clermont medical teams, both told me that they would back whatever decision I was most comfortable with and will help where they can. Knowing that I had their full support made the decision a little easier to face.
With the decision of surgery now made it's time to decide where and when it will take place. I'm hoping to get a couple of weeks off before I go under the knife so that I can enjoy my time away from the game and let off some steam.
Looking for positives among all this is important if I’m going to deal with the next few months. These injuries are devastating but it gives you time to take a break from the game and assess where you are.
You need to get away mentally just as much as physically so I'm looking forward to a bit of time off. If nothing else it makes you appreciate what you do for a living that much more because you miss it so much when you're away.
After all, this injury has given me a chance to relive my teenage years for a while. I’ll dust off the Playstation and head back to Wales for a bit for some good old home cooking from mum.
However there’s always the danger that being off my feet for that long will take its toll when I get on the scale, so I know already that mum will be limiting the sweet intake to weekends only. I don't want to make a return to the game only to get shoved into the front row – even though that would mean less sidestepping!
