Jamie Heaslip says there was a fear that the gravity of his recent injury could have had serious consequences for his career.
Injury issues contributed to Heaslip's omission for the 2017 Lions tour to New Zealand having participated in the 2009 and 2013 tours.
While he is coy about the actual nature and location of the injury, he did tell Off The Ball that at one point it could have impacted on his career, although he is now on the right track and on the road to recovery.
"I'm taking it week by week, obviously not the ideal time to get my first serious injury of my career but that's how the cards have fallen for me," he said, adding that it's the type of injury that necessitates a "week by week" approach and that it is "slow".
Asked if it was more serious than he expected before the scan, he said, "Yes", before continuing: "It just didn't progress the way we wanted to and it got into some pretty serious territory very quickly. It would have had some really long term consequences, permanent consequences."
When asked if there were fears at any point that the injury was career ending, Heaslip replied, "Potentially, so I had to address that pretty quickly. There was no beating around the bush".
Ireland's Jamie Heaslip who was a late withdrawl from the game ©INPHO/Billy Stickland
He added that because "we acted fast, I'm on track to make a full recovery".
On Leinster's exit at the hands of Scarlets in the Guinness Pro 12 semi final, Heaslip has no complaints about the result and admitted that "the better team won on the night".
But overall, he feels "it's been a really good year" for Leinster as they improved performance wise during the season.
Jamie Heaslip is an ambassador for Land Rover who are a Principal Partner of the British & Irish Lions.
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