Mack Hansen: 'There were sticky days when I was worried that was going to be it'

The Connacht and Ireland star feels stronger than ever, speed-wise he’s not far off, but he’s still rugby rusty, he says.

Mack Hansen poses for a portrait after an Ireland Rugby squad media conference at the IRFU High Performance Centre in Abbotstown this week. Pic: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

Every cloud and all that. There isn’t much to recommend a year out with injury, but it wasn’t all bad for Mack Hansen. Maybe the most obvious silver lining was the space it afforded for a decent trip back to Australia last January.

The way he tells it – and Mack can tell ‘em – is he popped off Down Under without running it by Connacht head coach Stuart Lancaster. Either way, he got to serve as groomsman at his best mate’s wedding and see a lot of his gran before she passed later in the year.

“It ended up being a nice trip back in Oz,” he says.

Hansen’s latest injury issue can be traced back to the British and Irish Lions’ 48-0 win over an AUNZ Invitational XV two summers ago when his foot gave way after stepping on someone’s boot. Scans showed ligament damage but not much else. If only that had been all it was.

Keith Fox, the Ireland physio who was working in the same capacity with the Lions, got him close to being right in time for the third Test with the Wallabies a month later, but Hansen didn’t feel fully right and able to contribute as he needed.

A tough call, but the right decision.

Rehab continued when he got home. He got injured again when scoring a late try against the Bulls in Galway, claimed a hat-trick against Australia in November, but it still wasn’t feeling right. The scans were eventually sent to James Calder, a specialist in London.

Calder was confident and offered two options. A smaller job that needed just screws inserted. Paddy McCarthy has got that one done. The other choice was screws and a fusion. The specialist felt this was the way to go. Hansen rowed in behind it.

“I ended up getting it fused, getting six screws and a plate in there. Got a new foot, essentially, is the way I like to describe it. Once he had a look at it, I went and saw him a couple of days later. A week later I was getting surgery. It happened pretty quick.”

The recovery colonised most of his time. Time off and holidays were few and far between and he has now played four of Connacht’s five games so far this season and is back in camp with Ireland a major option for Andy Farrell for the four November fixtures.

He feels stronger than ever, speed-wise he’s not far off, but he’s still rugby rusty. That shouldn’t be a shock given the length of the absence and the nature of an injury and treatment that, he has said, has even altered his running style slightly.

The main thing is he is back. And he wasn’t always certain of that.

“Yeah, there was a period there where I was a bit worried, to be honest. Again, I've been very lucky. I've had great people around me. People up here [with Ireland] and people down in Connacht that were doing everything they possibly could.

"There was a good period there, it just wasn't getting better. I felt like I'd take a step forward and two steps back for a while. I've had it with most injuries I've ever had. One day it just sort of clicks. It's not perfect now, but it's definitely on the mend.

“There were pretty sticky days where I was worried that maybe that was going to be it. On the other side of that, I think you always worry as a player with a big injury like that, if you're going to be able to come back and play like you were.” 

There’s no doubt but that he has been through the wars in his time. He has three screws in a shoulder, a screw in his wrist, a TightRope device used to stabilise the joint, and the half-dozen screws in his foot. The only wonder is that he doesn’t set off every alarm within a mile when he passes airport security.” 

“No, I'm not beeping. I don't know if they use a special type of metal.” 

The worth of his return for club and country is incalculable. Hansen at his best has been a revelation and his value has only multiplied now that Ireland have lost the unique qualities of James Lowe who is plying the trade now in Japan.

Lowe’s departure opens up a spot on that side of the paint and if Hansen has made a name for himself mostly on the far touchline then he is one of those wingers who isn’t fussed about being handed the number 11 or the number 14 jerseys.

This next month will ask more of him. There isn’t much room or sympathy for rust in the Test arena. Argentina, Fiji and South Africa all ask different but considerable questions of an opponent and he kicks in to it with Lancaster’s words ringing in his ears.

Hansen, what with his long spell sidelined, hasn’t actually worked with the Englishman all that closely for long but Lancaster made no bones about the expectations on him once fit. He expects the Canberra native to be world class.

Fiadh Hall, aged 11, from Gorey, Wexford, with Ireland players, from left, Andrew Porter, Cian Prendergast, Joe McCarthy, Mack Hansen and Darragh Murray during an Ireland men's rugby squad visit to the Children's Health Ireland hospital at Crumlin. Pic: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

Music to his ears, that.

"Well, that's the thing,” said the 28-year old. “Stu is telling me I'm not at my best. And that's what you want. That's what I want from him too. I don't want somebody telling me I'm great if I'm not doing great.” The hope is that the cards are falling in his favour again. Lancaster’s Connacht and Farrell’s Ireland aren’t peas in a pod but there are plenty of similarities in the way there used to be between the national side and Lancaster’s Leinster.

The presence of Hansen and seven other Connacht players in Farrell’s squad for November is evidence of the rising tide out west and there is a looming World Cup in his native Australia next year that is already claiming the attention of people within his circle.

First things first.

“Yeah, it would be great. It would be cool. People are already asking me for tickets. I tell them I haven’t made the squad yet so I can’t confirm anything. It would be cool, but there’s so much more to play for in between that.

“Faz had a really good chat [with the squad on Monday] where he set out the scene of what we’ve got to come and what we can achieve before we even get to the World Cup.

“It would be amazing to make that, and hopefully everything goes well and I can stay healthy and keep playing well and that will take care of itself and I’ll be in there, but before that there’s so much more on that we need to focus on.”