Munster's Jack Crowley eyes Christmas return after months of injury uncertainty

The Ireland out-half reflected on the uncertainty surrounding his unusual vascular injury and how his first major layoff has reinforced his love for rugby

One consequence of Jack Crowley's injury layoff has been a crystallisation of the view that coaching will never be for him. Pic: ©INPHO/Dan Clohessy

For Jack Crowley the plan remains as advertised. All going well the Munster and Ireland No.10 will be fully fit for the Christmas period, by which time the vascular injury that has kept him sidelined for six months will be no more than a bad dream.

“It’s quite simple,” he said at the launch of this year’s Champions Cup in France on Wednesday. “It’s just take it easy, progress week to week and take it slow. In terms of rehab, take it slow. But in terms of healing, it’s going pretty quick.” 

That’s the plan, but this is uncharted territory.

Turns out this narrowing of a blood vessel is something that is more common in cycling. That’s one thread to be chased as he goes about his rehab but, as Crowley says himself, there are no guarantees with any of this either.

The uncertainty over this problem, and the delay in its prognosis: it can’t have been easy. Were there times, he was asked, when that uncertainty made him think about his future? And whether he would be able to get back playing at all.

“When there’s a period of uncertainty and nothing’s known, everything can be thrown into the mix. It is the natural tendency to question everything when something goes wrong. There was uncertainty, 100%, I’ve had no problem in saying that. The nature of it though is just not seeing a whole pile (wrong).

“Again, it’s an unknown. If it was known, it would be a lot easier to diagnose quicker and stuff like that. I just think that in terms of the vascular, it’s something you wouldn’t hear every day in terms of injuries and in terms of players being out. That probably put a spin on it. But it’s going really well.” 

Grey areas permeate this story.

This could have been an accumulation of an issue over a period of time, or it could have been something that just happened in a flash. What he does know is that it announced itself in that warm-up for Ulster’s visit to Thomond Park last May.

"I tried to go out to run and kick and I couldn't. It was very, very evident straight away, but not evident walking around."

Taken out of the firing line that day, Munster named him again for the following week’s game against the Lions, only for the same result. All he can do now is a few upper body weights and, other than that, just rest.

If the nature of the injury is novel then so is the actual time out. This is Crowley’s first injury setback of any serious note and the uncertainty over all this adds a mental strain that he is honest enough to say is a challenge in itself.

“To speak generically, every injury or every problem, there’s a blueprint, and you’re like, ‘this is ideally how we want it to go’. But you hear of lads that are scheduled to come back from a hamstring and something comes up and they’re pushed back six weeks. Or they’re out with a hamstring and a calf goes.

“This is my first time in a period where I’ll go through a return to play and who knows what way my body will respond. That’s just the nature of it. So right now, I don’t know, being perfectly honest, but in terms of once I’m fully fit and healthy, then it is just fully fit and healthy to go. I don’t know what complications could come, but like anything, you cross that bridge when you come to it."

All that free time needs to be filled. He laughs at the extra jobs he had to do over a summer period that he had become accustomed to spending on foreign fields far away and he uses meditation to improve himself as a player and a person.

One consequence of the layoff has been a crystallisation of the view that coaching will never be for him. Too many hours in front of the laptop. Clipping, previewing, reviewing. Not for him. Playing, though? His thoughts on that haven’t changed.

"Being truthful, it's probably highlighted more my love for the game because being in and around the building, still as keen as ever to input to the group and to help lads grow and help my game stay up to scratch...

“Like, watching rugby, you see it from a different perspective and, if anything, it's probably given me a lease of life to understand why I play the game and how much I'm looking forward to getting back out there."