Ulster Rugby vs Connacht

IAIN HENDERSON: DIARY OF A COMEBACK

Iain Henderson’s meteoric rise with Ulster and into the Ireland team made him an iconic figure for club and country. His rampaging style, hard-hitting tackling and all-action game marked him out as a key figure this season – only for a serious hamstring injury in December to cast a dark shadow. This is his story of a typically battling fight back to fitness.

The Injury After I did the tear against Edinburgh, I knew pretty much straightaway something bad had happened. I went down and it was really painful for about 20 seconds and everything cramped up, but after that it wasn’t too bad. I was walking OK in the changing rooms afterwards, and I felt fine. I had an ultrasound and it didn’t find anything, but the MRI scan showed the muscle had pulled straight off

I think we can, that we’re ready. I’m certainly fresh and ready to go! I couldn’t have done it without… A lot has to be said for the surgeon and the work he did for me, and the physio that went in before I could even begin to look at moving. All that was fantastic, and Gareth Robinson has been great in terms of ‘rehabbing’ me and looking after me in that sense. Returning now is a bonus!

IAIN HENDERSON the bone. I had surgery in London the following week, and since then I have been in the gym with Kevin Geary and Jonny Davis from our Strength and Conditioning team! Slowly does it! Around the six-week mark I started

Had I not got back before the end of the season I think I would have been annoyed, it was always my goal to be back before the end of the season and being back this early is just an added bonus. I think when you have such a long-term injury you just look at other things breaking down as well, like tight ankles or Achilles, or calves, when you are coming back, but luckily my recovery has been pretty

to trot, and built that up to work on running, speed, agility, skills, ball-in-hand, contact - that has progressed over the weeks with my hamstring, so it has been a relatively straightforward recovery process, thankfully. Back with the squad I was gradually introduced back into training with the extended squad

straightforward and I haven’t had too many other issues on top of the hamstring. So I think probably ruling me out for the whole season was probably precautionary in terms of making sure that

in February, I did a few sessions with the Academy guys and then when the boys came back from their break, that was when my full integration back into the squad really started. It was great to get back into all the sessions in preparation for the Glasgow game. That was my ultimate goal when I started this process back to full fitness. Back in the game! It was a great feeling to be back playing against Glasgow last week, and to get a try was great, and though the result wasn’t exactly what we were looking for we have four really big games to go. Getting down to business! At home we face two of our biggest rivals before the end of the season – table-toppers Connacht tonight and then Leinster next month – and we’re getting into the ‘business end’ of the season. That’s the time you want to be peaking in your performance.

nothing else happened. Back with my mates!

Stuart Olding, Paddy Jackson and myself have had surprisingly little game time together so hopefully, fingers crossed, if everyone stays fit we can finish out the season together and hopefully target some good wins between now and the end of the season. Watching from the side-lines was definitely frustrating. You can see when teams play well, and I’ve said this before, you get very frustrated as you want to be a part of it and obviously be a part of a winning side, playing well, scoring tries and playing good rugby - everyone wants to be a part of that! However, it is equally frustrating when they are not going well, when you maybe think that you might have been able to add a little more or make the team play a little better, give that extra 1% that

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