Former Munster out-half Johnny Holland was a guest at Off the Ball's Heineken Rugby Club Roadshow in New Ross on Friday and opened up about the injury which cut his career short.
"So I was playing an 'A' game in Cork Con, my club at the time and I suffered a nasty enough hamstring injury where a tore the tendons from the bone," he told Ger. "I didn't think it was that bad at the time.
"Obviously I was in a lot of pain and there's a picture to prove it which I wasn't too happy about. I had heard about hamstrings from the bone being a very sore injury - Brian O'Hara who played at Con with me had one before me while he as in the academy.
"I thought there'd definitely be something worse than this - It's bad but it wouldn't be the worst one but about a week later I found out the news that it was a full hamstring evulsion and tendons from the bone so it wasn't a nice injury to get!
"I was poaching in a ruck which maybe a 10 shouldn't do and I was a little bit out in the open and a prop, like Tadhg, came along and bent me in two so that's the last time I was in a ruck anyway!"
Holland originally took the injury in his stride in a bid to get back into the first team squad. "You know the surgeon would have said to me 'You'll be back in six months' and in my head I heard five because you're a competitive athlete but he would have said 'You're not going to come back as fast or as powerful or as strong as you did' - not that I was very powerful! I had some bit of speed and that's a part of power.
"He's lying here, he's not telling the truth. Whether he thinks he is or not - I'll prove him wrong and prove the injury wrong. Obviously you go through all that as a competitive player so I didn't believe it for a second.
"And for my 13 months out of the game and another couple of months that I wasn't very fit for but I was, kind of, getting through it, I probably mentioned that 'R' word; retiring, probably twice if ever and she told me 'Shut up and get on with it!" and I laughed it off and didn't believe it at all," he added.
Looking to the future, Holland has dipped his toe into coaching and is keen to stay around sports as his career develops off-field. "Coaching with Con now is something that I, kind of, limped into. I never had an ambition being a coach when I left the game. The game is very taxing mentally, socially with your friends, your family, your girlfriend - you don't get a lot of time to plan things.
"I always said I wouldn't go back into the game because I thought I'd be 35 - I was 25 and I thought I had something to give back to the game so I did limp into coaching and Jerry Holland asked me to do it for a night or two.
"Then I was backing out of it and he said 'Don't back out of it, do one night a week' and it was probably one of the best things he's done because one night turned into two nights and then I was three times a week going to matches and, I didn't get obsessed with it but I couldn't let it go.
"You get afraid letting it go because once you let it go - you're gone in rugby. It changes very quickly. The laws change very quickly.
"I don't know if I'll do it forever but it's something I'm enjoying it at the moment."
The full Heineken Rugby Club Roadshow from New Ross is available here:
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