Four years on, Jonny Holland still finds it difficult to get his head around the fact that within the space of five short months, he went from starting for Munster against Leinster at a packed Aviva Stadium to being forced into early retirement.
It was no way for a 25-year-old to bow out, let alone one who had stayed patient long enough to finally feel like he belonged at the top level.
"It was very hard to accept it, I was in disbelief," Holland admits. "I couldn't believe I was having that conversation.
"I don't want it to come across that I was relieved to stop playing, but the struggle was over. There was a sense of relief to be put out of my misery.
"As much as it frustrates me, the pain I have now is good because it's a reminder of why I had to retire.
"It reminds me fairly quickly that I couldn't still play because otherwise my head would run away with itself wondering, 'What if?'"
Holland in action for his club Cork Constitution in 2012. Photo: Paul Mohan / Sportsfile
Holland's troubles began during a Munster 'A' game in November 2014. With several members of his extended family watching on in Temple Hill, where Holland had forged his path with Cork Con, what should have been a memorable occasion rapidly descended into a nightmare.
His hamstring ripped clean off the bone and while Holland knew it was serious at the time, nothing could have prepared him for the tortuous journey he was about to embark on.
"I remember going to the ruck and reaching for the ball, I got buried by one of their (Nottingham) players, which he was more than within his rights to do," he recalls.
Torn
"I was stretchered off and going into the dressing-room, I wasn't able to lie on the stretcher because it was too painful. Those kind of memories never really leave you.
"I was young and naive. I didn't believe it was a bad injury. I was in a lot of pain but I thought it was manageable, so I thought there has to be something worse than this.
"I thought it was a bad hamstring tear, which I had had previously - a medium-term injury basically.
"The physio told me if I had pain, it was a good sign because it meant it was attached to something and not completely torn. By Wednesday, I had no pain. I started to worry then."
Having worked his way through the Munster Academy, this was a major setback for the young out-half, who already felt like he was playing catch-up on the rest of his team-mates.
"Once the scans came back, the physio rang and told me it was bad," he continues. "That was a tough conversation. That one hit me hard. It was like a dagger in the heart.
"The surgeon told me that I was going to find it hard to get back to my top power and pace. I was sitting there thinking, 'Who are you to tell me that?' I took it personally that someone thought I wouldn't get back to where I was. Retirement was never on the cards.
Holland managed to make it back 16 months later but deep down he knew his hamstring was still not fully right.
The endless hours of momentous rehab took its toll, both mentally and physically, yet he was never in any doubt that it would be worth it to pull on the red jersey again. That desire to prove doubters wrong helped Holland develop a strong mental resilience when faced with life's setbacks.
Even now working as a nutritionist with the Cork senior hurlers and footballers, as well in his role as backs coach with Con, he tries to draw on his own tough experiences.
"Going through the Academy, you're not paid very well, especially not for the amount of effort you are putting into it," Holland insists.
"I said to my fiancée Chloe, 'Should I throw in the towel now and get a job like the rest of ye?' I was wondering was I up to no good. People don't realise that rugby doesn't stop when you leave the pitch.
"I found it frustrating. I was a year behind the fellas who I went through the whole system with. I didn't feel like my development was behind, but my contract said so. I always had a bit of a chip on my shoulder because of that.
"I was in the sub-Academy and Academy for a year longer than them, which meant I didn't get my senior contract until a year after all the others. That annoyed me."
The contract situation was just one of the many hurdles he faced in his short career but he still treasures that day at the Aviva when he began to fulfil his undoubted potential.
"I think people lie about sport," Holland maintains.
"If someone bags a hat-trick in soccer and they lose 4-3, they say that the three goals don't mean anything. They absolutely do and if you say they don't, you are a liar.
"The Leinster game was very bittersweet because I was delighted with myself, even though we didn't win.
"Taking me and my family in isolation, it was one of the greatest days for us because it was a tier-one game and I held my own against someone like Johnny Sexton, who was World Player of the Year two years later. It gave me the confidence that I belonged somewhere around that scene."
Holland was riding the crest of a wave before he was brought crashing back to reality once again. Having managed his hamstring throughout the 2015/'16 season, the run-in meant the games came thick and fast. As much as Holland raged against the dying of the light, his body, unfortunately, had other ideas and by his own admission, his performances suffered.
"I was still very sore going into games," the 28-year-old says.
"I was starting to get opportunities that I had been waiting for, for so long. I thought I would be able to get myself right over the summer.
"It just didn't work for me. I trained the whole way through my holiday just to keep my hamstring healthy. Then day one of pre-season, I tested very poorly. It was just deteriorating with the amount of stuff we had to do.
"It's tough to understand how I went from playing at the Aviva to retiring but it was getting worse and worse. Then pre-season finished me.
"I couldn't sit down without feeling pain. Driving the car, I could be in enough pain that I would feel like I needed to pull over. Even something like, walking up a small slope in Chloe's mother's driveway, I'd feel my hamstring. Bending down to pick stuff up became an issue. It was every second movement. The pain wasn't going anywhere.
Burden
"I tried not to burden people and deal with things myself. The way I deal with things from an emotional point of view, is I bottle things up and someone will get it in an outburst. I think it has helped me from an emotional point of view because now I'm not afraid to speak about how I am feeling."
Despite four years having passed since Holland played his last professional game for Munster, he still has to cope with the pain on a daily basis.
It's the price he paid for his refusal to throw in the towel when the odds were stacked against him but if Holland had his time over he would do it all again.
"I look back on my career with no regrets," he adds. "I don't know if I could have done any more with the injury.
"Transitioning away from the identity of being a professional player, I found that the hardest part. It definitely took its toll on me (mentally).
"I take a lot of pride from the fact that most people don't get a chance to play professional rugby. But when you look at the cold hard facts of how many games I played, it actually p**ses me off. I would have loved a longer crack at it."
TOMORROW: In the next part of our series, Ulster's Dan Tuohy on "rugby's murky world that people need to know"
In this series, Cian Tracey speaks to former players about retiring early and life after the bright lights go out
