After more than a year on the sidelines, Andrew Conway is fully fit and ready play.
The winger had to sit and watch over the last 12 months as Ireland won a Test series in New Zealand and followed it up with a Six Nations Grand Slam, while he also had a front row seat to Munster's epic journey to the URC title.
Having had surgery in the summer of 2022 on a recurring issue, his comeback was continually put on hold until a further operation in January of this year, which ultimately ruled him out of the entire season.
But after returning to full training with Munster this summer, the Ireland international says he's fit and available for work, ahead of his province's first pre-season game against Leinster on Friday 8 September.
"Yeah, ready to go now, thankfully. It's been a long, complex journey," he told the RTÉ Rugby podcast.
Conway initially suffered the knee injury during the 2022 Six Nations, but returned after just over two months to feature in his province's final two games of the season.
His surgery that summer ruled him out of Ireland's tour of New Zealand, and although he had penciled in a return by the end of October, a number of setbacks saw him undergoing a second procedure in the new year.
"Between June and January was the toughest time, there were signs we were going in the right direction, but I didn't have any experience in a pretty big operation and the recovery and what it should feel like," he said.
"I’ve loads of experience in being fit and dealing with knocks and pushing through them and sucking it up at times and playing through pain at times. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but between surgery one and surgery two it just never got to a place where we put in a good body of work.
"There was always a couple of weeks good, and then a bad week, then a good week and then two bad weeks. I was probably in a bit of denial about how that was going if I reflect back on it."
And the former Leinster wing says the 12-month lay-off has taught him a valuable lesson.
"That comes back to me. It wasn't the medical staff, they were trying to pull me back and I was trying to push them on. You have to take self-accountability with it. I had no experience with a big rehabilitation.
"If I was to pass on a bit of advice to guys going through it for the first time, it would be to talk more and to understand your body more, and respect your body more.
"Your body is telling you exactly what it's feeling, but at times it’s hard to separate your mentality from your physicality and they both need to be singing the same song, or else you’re just chipping away at a scab," he added.
There was a silver lining for Conway; his toughest year as a professional coincided with his happiest away from the game, becoming a father for the first time in March of last year before marrying his partner Liz last summer.
And he says fatherhood gave him a whole new perspective on his injury problems.
He said: "It's been tough but it’s been a great time personally. We had our daughter arrive in March of 2022 as well, and her lifespan has been my injury lifespan.
"I’ve been blessed in that regard, because I’ve been able to put things in perspective and be around my daughter. It’s been tough missing big tours and winning Grand Slams and going to South Africa and winning the URC the hard way, but you put things in perspective, and life is bigger than rugby.
"To be around her for her whole life up to this point has been a massive blessing. Whenever you’re dealing with these tough times you have to frame them as best you can to make sure that your head is dealing with things as good as you can be."
Had it not been for the injury, it's likely the 30-cap Ireland international would be heading to the World Cup next month.
Conway had been a regular in the Ireland team under Andy Farrell prior to his injury, having scored five tries in his previous five appearances in the side between November 2021 and March 2022.
While he wasn't included in the full Ireland squad that have been preparing for the World Cup this summer, he did get brought in for a week during July as extra cover, which would indicate he may be a contender for a place at the tournament if Ireland were to be hit by injuries.
"To get a shout to go in, and the faith he's [Farrell] shown in me to come in after not doing much rugby squad sessions, there’s loads of really good options that he could have called and I was lucky enough to call me.
"I had a really good week in there, trained well, and the message was: 'Get back to Munster, keep working, we need to see that accumulation of data in terms of your pitch sessions, and what you’re doing on a weekly basis’.
"It’s detaching from the outcome of being obsessed with going to a World Cup, or being obsessed with something not in my control, just focusing on what I can do everyday.
"The cards will fall where they fall, and after plenty of experience and highs and lows and not being able to be in that mental space, I’m now in a nice mental space where if it does come, I’ll be 100% ready and I’ll be a way better player than I was when I left.
"And I know that if it doesn’t come, I’ll have done everything I could, and it just wasn't meant for me."
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