Jamie Roberts
Welsh rugby’s hard-running, crash-tackling centre is out, injured, of the Autumn International series. But, he insists, he’ll be back – fitter, faster and stronger.
Jamie Roberts
When Jamie Roberts says something hurts, you’re inclined to believe him. Because not only is this 17st speedster used to taking, and giving, some of the hardest hits in international rugby, he’s also in the fourth year of his medical studies.
So an ‘ouch’ from Roberts is an informed ‘ouch’: he’ll know why something hurts as well as the fact it does.
The ‘ouch’ in question is a ligament in his right wrist, badly damaged during the second test of last summer’s Lions tour of South Africa. Two scans to trace the pain failed to pick up the injury and Roberts played on through 2009 and ’10 until a camera probe spotted a complete ligament tear. His wrist required a surgical technique known as a ‘modified Brunelli repair’. Roberts, unlike any of his peers, knew exactly what that operation entails and that it would also mean five months out of the game.
For one of British rugby’s brightest stars, it’s a loss not only to his career, but also to the sport (though there will be sighs of relief from home-country rivals and those from Australia, South Africa, Fiji and New Zealand, who tour here this month).
Unfortunate as his absence is, it’s unavoidable: before surgery at the end of July, he’d been unable to ‘hand-off’ opponents or do press-ups. Since the op he has had to endure the frustration of plaster casts, splints, slings and being unable to train his (rather powerful) upper body.
“I’m wasting away,” he jokes from his Cardiff home, before adding with an ominous twinkle, “but I’m using the time to work on the rest of my conditioning. I’ll be fitter and faster when I come back, that’s for sure.” Questioned on this, Roberts reveals he has been working hard on his sprinting (“early sessions, Red Bull-assisted”) to iron out what he describes as “big issues” with his technique.
For the full story pick up the November Red Bulletin Magazine.
