O’Connell admits fearing he’d never get the intensity back
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.
“That was frustrating and the big worry for me. I knew I could get back by such-and-such a date but I was less certain whether I’d have the same intensity. But I never had a planned date until we won the Racing Metro game and made the quarter-finals. That was two weeks after my op and the quarter-final was 11 weeks away. So that became a real possibility — and a target.
“I was fairly positive before the operation. I’d seen the scans and they didn’t look bad. All the experts were of the opinion that it would be simple enough. You never know for certain but once the operation was out of the way there was light at the end of the tunnel. Before that it was a case of conservatively managing the problem. You wake up every day hoping you’ll be all right.”
Pain was never an issue. A career spent smashing into 20 stone rivals lessoned that sense.
“That’s the strange thing. In ordinary daily life I was fine. I could pick up my boy [Paddy] with no problem. It was just when I went into real physical contact that I’d seize up.
“With back injuries the nerve pain lingers. Essentially, you’ve had something rubbing against your nerves a long time. So if you take that away during surgery the nerves are still frayed, bruised and a little torn. You have nerve pain for a while.”
A nightly routine with an old colleague kept him sane.
“After the operation I’d spend the day in bed, reading or watching TV, as you have to do. Then I would have to go out for my walk.
“The pain was OK. We started with five minutes and then 10 minutes and so on. Quinny lives in the same estate as me and he’s a nocturnal creature. Even last night he turned up at a quarter to 10. So he used to come for a stroll with me and we’d shoot the breeze.”
But that doubt manifested itself in the build-up to the Harlequins match. Munster’s form, after suffering a record 51-24 defeat to Glasgow in the RaboDirect Pro12, was a major concern.
“I would have been the least positive about a Munster team in a very long time. I had a fear it would turn out similar to the Glasgow game. It could’ve been a really, really tough day — not just a narrow loss but a rough day. We had a massive fear in the squad as to what might happen if we didn’t perform.
“I missed the first kick-off! But after that we got a good foothold and then had a great start in the second half. Once ahead we were able to keep the lead by playing ‘no-mistakes rugby’.”
He may have said it in jest but Paul O’Connell knows Warren Gatland can view his lack of game time as a positive when he sits down to select his Lions squad.
Wales’ Sam Warburton may have become the bookies’ favourite to captain the side but O’Connell is determined to travel with the squad to Australia despite suggestions his limited match time will rule him out.
“I’ve never seen more hype and speculation about a tour in all my life than this Lions selection,” O’Connell said.
“I’d love to be on the plane but I’m trying to ignore the speculation.
“Look, I’d love to go but it’s a tough situation when you’re coming back and you didn’t play in the autumn or in the Six Nations.
“I suppose the line I’m peddling is that I’m going to be fresh.
“I’ve played five and a half games this season,” he laughed, “so freshness is my selling point at the moment.”
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