Jack Nowell and Manu Tuilagi might cross like “ships in the night” when on England responsibility, however they’ve nonetheless developed a powerful bond amid the shared distress of damage.
Nowell has battled again from a damaged arm in time to participate within the three-Test collection in opposition to Australia that begins at Perth’s Optus Stadium on Saturday, when he’s anticipated to line up on the wing.
Tuilagi, nevertheless, misses the tour fully due to knee surgical procedure that has written one other painful chapter in a stop-start profession ravaged by repeated spells in rehabilitation.
Both gamers have been solely sporadically out there to England, robbing the workforce of two hard-running gamebreakers who’ve since turned to one another for assist in darkish instances.
“Manu’s in a similar position to me in terms of his injures. I speak to Manu quite a lot,” Nowell mentioned. “When we’re in camp I quite often room with him, our partners are quite close and our kids are a similar age as well.
“A few weeks before we came out here I went up to see him to see how he’s getting on. I quite often speak to the Chief. He’s always one of the first people to text me when he hears I’m injured at club level and vice versa.
“During the Six Nations we laughed quite a bit because we were always missing each other. We kept saying we were like ships in the night.
“We were both lined up to play in the Wales game together, but he was injured on his last training day. We kind of both know what we’re going through.
“A lot of the lads that are fit all the time and are lucky enough to stay injury free don’t really get that. When you’re in that unfortunate position and see the darkness of it…it’s quite tough.”
Manu Tuilagi has been troubled by hamstring and knee accidents for the reason that autumn (Adam Davy/PA)
(PA Wire)
At the beginning of the season Nowell made modifications to his life-style, together with quitting alcohol to assist cut back weight, and he shortly felt the advantages on the sphere.
But though the try to scale back the variety of accidents that have been requiring prolonged spells within the remedy room labored, misfortune struck on the finish of the Six Nations that no preventative measure may have stopped.
“Touch wood I feel I’m in a good little spot at the moment. There wasn’t anything I could do about breaking my arm against France,” Nowell mentioned.
“I jumped up for a high ball, landed on it funny and had a clean break of my radius. It’s just one of those things. The injuries I really did struggle with were the muscle tears and then rushing to get back after I had my foot operated on.
“I was desperate to get back for the autumn, but I didn’t make it because my foot wasn’t right. Then I was desperate to get back for the Six Nations, rushed it and tore my hamstring. Hopefully this is me going forward.
“If anyone works out how much I’ve been out for in total, please don’t tell me. It’s depressing!
“I try not to take things too seriously. If I started thinking like that I think I’d get bogged down quite a bit. At the end of the day we’re injured and it sucks, but things could be a lot worse.”
Source: www.impartial.co.uk
