How British and Irish Lions hooker Dan Sheehan made miraculous return from ACL injury for series against Wallabies
Dan Sheehan is poised to play a major role for the British & Irish Lions against the Wallabies, after returning to his freakish best just 12 months on from an injury which he feared would have ruled him out of the tour.
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Lions miracle man Dan Sheehan has revealed his initial fear of missing the Australian tour, before making one of the quickest ever recoveries from anterior cruciate ligament surgery.
The Irish hooker tore his ACL and MCL (medial collateral ligament) in a Test against South Africa last July. Usually, recovery is between nine months to a year when repairing both ligaments, but Sheehan was able to return to the field in January for Leinster.
Twelve months on, Sheehan is poised to play a major role for the British & Irish Lions, after returning to his freakish best during the Six Nations.
The 191cm forward, one of the tallest hookers in world rugby, said there was no magical secret to his astoundingly quick return after surgery.
“One of the biggest worries when it first happened that I might miss out on an opportunity to play with the Lions, but it all comes down to the medical team in Leinster that rehabbed me back,” Sheehan said.
“I suppose I was lucky in the sense that I didn’t do too much damage around other bits and it was pretty straightforward and it was an ACL and MCL injury that I got through pretty quick.
“But the stress of the injury was taken off my hands by my physio Emma (Gallivan). I’ve never felt like I had to worry and I just showed up and did the work she told me to do.
“We had no setbacks and I think she had a good feel of my body and I had a good trust and understanding in how far I could push certain aspects at a time.
“And then we just hit every marker. We just made sure not to bluff it and sort of see past things.
“I can’t speak on behalf of anyone else on how they did it but it just felt natural and it felt like I was just hitting markers at good points. It was obviously great timing that I got back just before the Six Nations but the stress was taken out of my hands and it was easy.”
Sheehan, 26, is poised to play for the Lions against Western Force this Saturday. That was the furthest thing from his mind when he crumpled on the field against the Springboks.
“You have all these big milestones if you’re planning your year or how the next couple of years want to look like and Lions is definitely on top of that sheet, the pinnacle of what you can achieve in your career,” Sheehan said.
“So that was immediately a bit of a worry in my head. I remember speaking to my dad almost straight away and almost thinking the worst and saying how horrible the timing is, but it ended up probably being the best timing if you were going to do it. I missed the first six months of the year but got probably the best six months. If you were going to miss six months, I missed the right six months.”
Sheehan’s recovery amazed those around him, including Leinster and Ireland teammate Garry Ringrose, who was fielding inquiries from people asking how Sheehan made such a quick return.
“He was just grinding away every day,” Ringrose said.
“He was doing a bit of boxing. You’d see him in the gym skipping. I know talking to Emma, whatever she asked him to do, he doubled down on it and was unbelievably committed.
“I keep saying they’re pushing the boundaries, but he’s someone who did when it comes to ACL. I know people reach out to him looking for what was the secret and people have asked me as well, could they ask Dan? I’m getting on to him and there was no secret sauce for him other than just working hard. That’s Dan for you.”
Sheehan didn’t miss a beat upon returning for club and country.
“One of the things I was conscious of was that it was my first big injury in rugby, so was I going to have a big setback in performance and the mentality side of it, was I going to lose out in that?” Sheehan said.
“I played the Stormers the week before England in the first game of Six Nations and that got me up to running pretty quick. That gave me confidence.
“I had a good performance off the bench against England and once I got those two under my belts I knew I was back to where I was and I could kick on and try to push for selection and contention for this.
“It was a worry at the time but I quickly got over it and sort of came back to my confident self.”
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Originally published as How British and Irish Lions hooker Dan Sheehan made miraculous return from ACL injury for series against Wallabies
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