Two months, six appearances and seven tries later – Dan Sheehan feels he has now fully run out of tarmac on the road to recovery and is ready to help spearhead Leinster's Champions Cup challenge.
Leo Cullen’s side welcome English outfit Harlequins to Croke Park on Saturday in the round of 16 hoping to take another step towards what would be a fourth consecutive final and, they hope, avoiding a fourth consecutive final loss.
Such a prospect is fair bit away yet, but having Sheehan back in the groove after last July’s ACL injury can only enhance their chances.
"I had full confidence in the work that I’d put in through rehab that my knee would hold up," said Sheehan, who marked his return with a brace against the Stormers in the UCL in January.
"We made sure not to rush it, I hit all the markers, so I took confidence from that, knowing I was back 100% fit.
"It was just trying to get back into my game then. Obviously, it’s hard to replicate test match feel or a big-game feel while you’re away from the game so it was nice to get that Stormers game going into the Six Nations.
"Throughout the Six Nations it’s been really nice just to keep the confidence going about my body and getting back into it, thinking about playing games.
"I think I’m getting there now, back to where I was – mainly around mentality and seeing the different pictures and the decision making, which is hard to replicate.
"I think I’m in a good place and looking forward to Saturday."
That Stormers return came 203 days after picking up the injury in last year’s Test loss to South Africa in Pretoria – undoubtedly on the quicker side of recovery; something the 26-year-old is grateful for.
"Obviously the initial shock of hearing it was an ACL, I didn’t think it was at the time. I remember hoping to be playing the next week and then the scan came back with the bad news.
"I sat down quickly with Emma [Gallivan, physio] and the medical team here and we aimed for the Six Nations period, it would be a good target and we put our heads down, did everything we needed to do, didn’t really have any setbacks.
"I know some people can run into difficulties but I think we hit all of our markers pretty early and we never really strayed away from our timeline."
Individually, the Six Nations was productive for Sheehan as the hooker ran in five tries and captained the side in their hard-fought win over Wales in Cardiff.
For the team though, there was the disappointment of missing out on both the Grand Slam and the championship – but now it’s all eyes on Leinster duty with the experienced core of the group remaining at home in preparation for Harlequins while an experimental side headed to South Africa for URC clashes with the Bulls and the Sharks.
"We’ve seen it throughout the season, obviously they are a team that don’t go away," said Sheehan of this weekend's opponents.
"They’ve been down quite considerably in a good few games and they come back and managed to win.
"They score a lot of tries, I think they have eight try bonus points out of 13 games so they’re an incredibly dangerous attacking team and then they have a big pack, they rely on a few individuals to front up physically for them. It’s one of those games where you actually enjoy the prep, they’re quite an enjoyable team to watch and have a bit of flair about them.
"We need to make sure we’re on our game defensively but we also need to make sure our attack is running to get on top of them."
Saturday’s game will take place at the Jones’ Road venue with over 60,000 expected in attendance, but the player feels that they are becoming "comfortable" with those surroundings having faced Northampton there last season and Munster this term.
"It’s a great stadium, and I think everyone has enjoyed playing in it.
"We need to make sure it’s not a distraction, I think most of the lads have played there now and are used to it so it’s definitely a positive.
"It’s probably something we touched on more when it was the first time.
"This time around we’ll mainly just focus on our game and playing our match. I don’t think we’ve read into the history or the nostalgia of Croke Park this time. We are all really comfortable with it."
Meanwhile, a final call will be made later this week to see if Rónan Kelleher’s recovery from a neck injury has progressed enough to allow him to feature.
Michael Milne came through the victory over the Sharks while Cormac Foley has returned to full training.
Alex Soroka has entered the graduated return to play protocols after that win in South Africa but Will Connors is unavailable after injuring his shoulder in the 10-7 success.
Watch Leinster v Harlequins in the Champions Cup on Saturday from 2.15pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app.
Listen to live commentary of La Rochelle v Munster (5.30pm) and updates from Leinster v Harlequins (3pm) in the Champions Cup on Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1.
