Jerry Flannery knows exactly how Billy Vunipola will be feeling.
The Saracens and England No.8 was forced to pull out of the British & Irish Lions tour to New Zealand, last Sunday, after ceding to medical advice on his badly damaged shoulder.
Vunipola was odds on to start for the Lions in the Test Series, against New Zealand, and had already linked up with his teammates for press, admin and PR duties. He had yet to train with Warren Gatland’s squad but was the proud owner of a Lions kit-bag with personalised ‘B.V’ gear and extras.
Flannery got all the Lions logo-ed gear, with ‘J.F’ on it, ahead of the 2009 tour to South Africa but never made the plane. The former Munster and Ireland hooker spoke [from 31:20] about missing out on The Hard Yards rugby podcast.
Flannery was tipped to start as hooker for the Lions after a superb run of form with Munster and Ireland had culminated with the 2009 Grand Slam. He was training with the Lions two weeks before they jetted off when he badly injured his elbow.
“Vunipola is young [24] and hopefully he gets the chance to go on another tour or two,” he said. “For me, that was probably my last chance of playing with the Lions.
“It was a freak injury where I broke my shoulder. I could have got injured two weeks or four weeks before that and not even got out there to the training camp. But look, injuries happen.”
Before he went under the surgeon’s knife, Flannery had a conversation with the medics that pretty much resulted in a two-for-one operation.
Flannery in his Lions training gear on May 19, 2009. One day later he injured his elbow.Flannery commented:
“I actually had two operations. I had to get my elbow reconstructed and then – I had injured my shoulder during the Six Nations and there was still something wrong with it – I said to the surgeon, ‘When you’re going in, will you take a look at the shoulder too?’
“It was literally like that – while you’re in there… When I woke up I was in two slings so the doctor told me I had a slap tear in the labrum, of my shoulder, and that they had reconstructed.
“It was pretty heavy duty. All I could do to train was get on a bike or just do legs. I went away with my missus, on holidays, and caught the Test matches but missed the warm-up matches.”
Flannery says if Munster or Ireland had been involved in competition, he would have stayed fully supportive but there was not as much of a connection to the Lions.
“I wasn’t going to fly over to South Africa on my tod and cheer them on like some sort of weirdo,” he remarked.
