Dan Sheehan declared himself "100%" fit and raring to get back to action with Ireland ahead of the Guinness Six Nations.
The Leinster hooker is due to fly out to Portugal this morning to meet up with his international team-mates at the training camp in Quinta do Lago.
He'll do so with a smile on his face after captaining Leinster to a 36-12 BKT URC win over Stormers in which he was named player of the match and scored two tries.
It was the perfect way to mark his comeback following a lengthy lay-off with an ACL injury suffered last July in Ireland’s first Test against South Africa.
"It a felt like a bit of a debut nearly," Sheehan told RTÉ Sport.
"A lot of work has been put into me from the backroom staff at Leinster, Emma Gallivan [physio] has put a huge amount of work in and made my life easy.
"I just show up and get the work done.
"It's excellent to be back out on the pitch with the lads and sort of lead the week like that and get that buzz around, get that nervous energy again, which was sorely missed over the last couple of months.
"[I’m] delighted with how that went and really proud of the lads of how they showed up."
Just HOW do you stop @leinsterrugby when they are in this form? 🔥
— BKT United Rugby Championship (URC) (@URCOfficial) January 25, 2025
They are lighting up Aviva Stadium 😮💨#URC #BKTURC | #LEIvSTO pic.twitter.com/FD3Ti9GwY1
The 26-year-old, who played 62 minutes, sported a large knee support but assured fans that it was all part of the recovery plan.
He said: "I am 100%, that's just for extra stability, I suppose.
"It's part of the rehab process but we've covered all bases and everyone is 100% sure and convinced that I'm ready to play.
"There was no rushing and I made sure that, in my own head, I wasn't rushed.
"I passed all the markers and we got back onto the pitch earlier than expected and hit that six-month mark, which was sort of a target of mine when we got injured in July.
"So couldn't be happier."
Leo Cullen’s side are 15 points clear at the top of the table following a relatively routine win achieved without the majority of their Ireland contingent.
There was also a return from injury for Ireland wing James Lowe, who played the full 80 minutes. Lowe and Jack Boyle are also due to join up with Simon Easterby’s panel, six days out from Saturday’s Dublin date with England.
"I have to just take it week by week, obviously delighted to come through that game fine," he added.
"A few of us will head over to Portugal, which is hugely exciting to get back into camp with the rest of those lads.
"It was kind of weird being out of [the panel] for the first time during the November [internationals] and watching those games.
"So looking forward to getting back with the lads and getting a bit of prep done for the next couple of games."
On the win, which was Leinster’s 14th in a row this season, Sheehan said there was plenty of room for improvement, despite securing all five points with room to spare.
"We played a lot of ball down their half [in the second half] and we were probably sloppy with a lot of our chances," said Sheehan, who now has 38 tries in 65 Leinster appearances.
"Lineout issues and some breakdown issues that Stormers are very good at sniffing out a few chances there, but we need to be better, especially when we have that much territory and that much ball in the opposition half.
"But we got there in the end and it's kind of testament to the bench.
"The bench were great. We had a bit of a weird scenario there where we had a lot of forwards playing in the back positions with the 6:2 split we had on the bench.
"We came through well and it's nice to get that sort of scoreline against a really good South African team."
Watch Ulster v Zebre Parma (Sunday from 5pm) in the BKT United Rugby Championship on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.
