O’Connell admits fearing he’d never get the intensity back

There was no escape for Paul O’Connell.

Staring into a book, watching the television, nightly recuperation walks with Alan Quinlan the same thought kept running through his head — will I ever make it back to where I was? Over Christmas he underwent surgery to correct a bulging disc that was pressing on a nerve in his lower back. The recovery process was slow but targeted. Once Munster qualified for the Heineken Cup quarter-final he started to believe he could return for a meaningful game but then came the darker thoughts.

“My big worry,” he admitted in The Guardian , “is that I’m in the front five where fitness and workrate are important. With every passing month you worry about your conditioning and sharpness.