Space age help has Ferris floating on air

THE US space agency NASA should expect a thank you card from Stephen Ferris.

The Ulster giant’s World Cup dreams looked in tatters after a serious knee injury looked to have put his career in jeopardy earlier this season.

However, a long and complex rehab programme has fired him back to fitness and on the place to next month’s tournament in New Zealand. One of the key tools on the road to recovery was an anti-gravity treadmill developed by American scientists as part of their astronaut development programme.

The system has since been adapted by sports medicine to allow athletes train without exerting too much pressure or weight on injured limbs. Ferris and his left knee benefited hugely from the technique.

He explained: “I started on the Ultra-G treadmill, which allowed less of my body weight to (go) through my joints. We used the machine to build it up for three or four weeks.

Then it was eventually back to running on the pitch with 100% body weight. In my current situation, the more impact the knee gets the better. The bone actually heals, it repairs itself. Obviously, there were mornings when I woke up and the pain in my knee was absolutely killing me.

“All those dark days (hopefully) are behind me and now it’s a case of looking to the future, which is what I’ve tried to do after every injury I’ve had. Thankfully, I’m on the right road now. My leg strength now is probably better than it was before I injured my knee.”

Recalling his return to the international stage against France last weekend, a delighted and relieved Ferris said: “I think I had Sean O’Brien shouting in my ear, telling me to get to somewhere else. Before the match, I was just looking around and taking it all in again. It was like a first cap all over again. I got into the game head on and it was nice to get back but the result wasn’t what I would have wanted.”

Despite the defeat, the game was a massive milestone for Ferris after his injury misery. Four years ago the World Cup passed him by — and the passage of time has done little to ease the sting of omission.

“I got this cap (the Irish World Cup cap) in 2007 and when I looked at it, I thought I didn’t earn it. It was great to be involved in 2007 and it was a great learning curve for me but I didn’t get any minutes. I kind of threw it in the bag and when I came home, I gave it to my mum. Hopefully, I’ll get one this time and cherish it a little more.”

And looking to the bigger picture of the tournament, Ferris is in confident mood. He reasoned: “Every single person in the team has won something. There are winners throughout the squad but we now need to bring that winning mentality into this World Cup. The last tournament was very disappointing. Everybody involved in that wants to make amends. We want to get out of our group, that’s the first priority and hopefully that can lead on to bigger things.”