Donncha O'Callaghan

The...

You know, it's like a pre-season.

What I always found whenever I was playing rugby, you're at this top level, right?

If you're playing Six Nations, you're as fit and as ready to go as ever, right?

Then all of a sudden, if you get injured, like a nasty injury, you're right back, like your body just...

falls apart I mean it's unbelievably how quick that fitness goes away and you could be out for two months you could be out for four months you could be out for nine months but see coming back like see coming back from the kind of being out for four months and then having to get yourself back up to that fitness level again oh my god the hell but that was a time when I used to love a nap like you'd be busting yourself and people can be like oh he's injured so he mustn't be doing anything all the time I mean you're nearly training harder

When you're injured than when you're not.

And you always find there's always somebody worse than you.

There's always someone who's done an ACL.

There's somebody who's really crocked on their crutches.

But you build this like a squad like that every morning while everybody else is out training and doing their meetings and going off and going for matches.

You're stuck at home.

Like, so the lads are heading off to European Cup match against Toulouse and they're all full of it, all excited.

And then like the Friday morning, we're all back in the gym, back doing our rehab, back doing our physio.

But you get such a bond.

But then, like, I remember doing Nick Williams or Marcel Couttsy at one stage.

Like, we were both out with knee injuries for ages.

We were both trained together.

But then you see them return to play earlier than you and it breaks your heart.

Yeah.