‘I’ve got surgeons on speed dial’ – Ex-England captain opens up on injury nightmare
Yesterday at 12:30 PM
Lawrence Dallaglio has opened up on the long-term impact of the gruelling injuries that nearly cut his career short.
The former England captain retired from rugby in 2008 after a glittering 18 years in the game which saw him make 85 appearances for the Red Rose, including winning the 2003 World Cup.
A one-club man, Dallaglio spent his entire career at Wasps, where he tasted Premiership success five times, as well as lifting the Heineken Cup in 2004 and 2007.
But the England legend has revealed that his trophy cabinet could have been considerably lighter, with serious injuries threatening to end his playing days prematurely.
In 2001, Dallaglio tore his ACL, and later suffered a broken ankle whilst representing the British and Irish Lions in 2005.
The latter injury required the four-time Six Nations winner to have his ankle reconstructed and bolted into place.
And while Dallaglio would ultimately make an heroic return to the sport just four months later, he has now opened up on the toll the injuries continue to have on him post-retirement.
Appearing on The Overlap’s ‘Stick to Football‘ podcast, Dallaglio said: "I'm 52 and I've got surgeons on speed dial pretty much – I've had 15 operations throughout my career.
"You don't mind the smaller ones, where at the end of the season you need your knee cleaned out so you're ready for next season.
“It's more about avoiding the bigger ones – I did my ACL in 2001, which is a hard eight or nine months, but it taught me a lot.”
The legendary flanker then broke down the huge individual effort it took to return to fitness after the serious injury.
He continued: “I said to the manager: ‘I can't come into the club every day – it's going to drive me mad, everyone is going to ask me about my knee, I just needed some time away from the club’.
“I had my own physio and everything, and I came back after about four months.
"Mentally, you've got to get yourself right. You learn so much when you get injured, and you come back a much stronger player. Then I had the ankle issue in New Zealand."
Earlier on in the podcast, Dallaglio discussed breaking his ankle in the opening match of the Lions’ tour of New Zealand.
The 52-year-old revealed that, after immediately undergoing surgery to correct the injury, he was then left stranded on the other side of the world as he was unable to fly on doctor’s orders.
He explained: "The next day I had an operation, wake up and the surgeon comes in.
"He says: 'Good news and bad news. The good news is you’ve got a nice piece of Kiwi metal in your leg, six screws, you'll be back playing in about four months’.
"He said: 'The bad news is you've got to stay in New Zealand for 6 weeks. I can’t let you fly home.
Dallaglio then shared his reaction to the news: "I said: 'That’s not bad news, that’s catastrophic!’
"So the Lions left the next day and went off to Christchurch. So they said [to me]: 'There's your boarding pass', and I was left on my own, on crutches’.”
