On the verge of Ireland’s World Cup to on the brink of retirement.
Talk to any of the Irish training squad, or management, last August and Tommy O’Donnell was one of the first to receive praise.
The Munster openside was tearing it up in training and looked certain to make Joe Schmidt’s 31-man squad. He was given his chance against Wales, at the Millennium Stadium, and justified that call as Ireland ran amok.
Then, midway through the second half, he charged into contact, caught his studs in the turf and felt his hip wrench out from its socket. Dislocation.
Agony of the complete and utter variety.
O’Donnell was out of the World Cup but feared worse was to follow. He admits retirement thoughts crossed his mind, as he was told to breathe into and oxygen mask and carted off the pitch in Cardiff.
“I didn’t think this was possible at all,” the Munster forward told us after he was selected to start as Ireland’s No.7 against Wales in Sunday’s Six Nations opener. He added:
“When the [doctors] first gave me a date, they were talking about the middle of March, April, before I’d even be back on the pitch.
“So you put the Six Nations behind you. Even when I came back against Leinster [in December], the Six Nations wasn’t anywhere near my mind. It was just about getting back and playing.”
Amid the World Cup preparations, Joe Schmidt found time to make a consoling, yet supportive, phone call and O’Donnell’s province rallied around.
“Everyone was fantastic. It was overwhelming. The messages of good will just kept coming for days and days after the injury.
“But I definitely have to give a special mention to the Munster physio and strength and conditioning staff, we basically became best friends.
“I was in there for hours and hours, from when it got light in the morning until when it was dark at night.”
The hours of hard, thankless slog paid off as O’Donnell began to surmount every challenge thrown in his way.
A potential nine-month comeback was completed in a little over four when he lined out for Munster, against Leinster, on December 27.
Typically, selflessly, O’Donnell puts it down to luck:
“Speaking to [Ireland team doctor] Eanna Falvey the posterior dislocation like that, what it could have been and how bad it could have been, never playing rugby again, it was good news from the minute we went in and got the CT scan, and the X-ray.
“The hip wasn’t broken, there was no damage to the acetabulum, and that’s just good news. It sat back in nicely, the blood supply was good, all the bruising went away in six weeks, it was good news on top of good news.
“And after that it was just back to strengthening. It just rolled on so quickly it seems like a short process now even though it was four and a half months.”
The latest mountain to climb comes into view on Sunday afternoon.
Warren Gatland has selected two opensides in his back row – Sam Warburton and Justin Tipuric – as he looks to disrupt Ireland’s plans to dictate tempo.
O’Donnell will have to roll his sleeves up, get neck-deep in the breakdown battle and, when he dusts himself off, provide carries and front-foot ball.
He is relishing it.
“What it does give you is a sense of how hard international caps are to come to you.
“Some players are lucky enough to go on a run and get a run of games, I obviously have been unlucky in that regard.
“I probably came a bit late to the table, then was stopped short after a good run in the pre-season. So it makes you savour these caps and relish them.
“When I was lying on the turf in the Millennium Stadium, I didn’t think this was possible.
“So it makes it even sweeter now.
“And when I walk into the dressing room and I see my jersey there, it will make it all the sweeter. It will really drive me on I hope.”
