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IAIN HENDERSON:
DIARY OF A COMEBACK
IAIN HENDERSON
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
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
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
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.
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!
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
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
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
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.