Chris Henry delighted to be making hard yards again for Ulster

First it was knees, then the anterior cruciate ligament and then shoulder reconstruction. There were always hamstrings tweaking before concussion swept in over the last few years and now, picking among the return-to-play protocols, it has been hearts. Muscles, ligaments or grey matter have been rugby preoccupations for generations.

Irish prop Simon Best did not return to the game when he took a turn in Bordeaux during the 2007 World Cup. Numbness and slurred speech pointed to a heart condition, which ended his career.

Richardt Strauss got fit again for Leinster when 2013 became his year of running repairs to the wall of his heart. He arrived back early in January of the following year.

Now Ireland and Ulster flanker Chris Henry hopes for his second start of the year since his world was upended on the morning of Ireland's game against South Africa last November.

Rooming with Rhys Ruddock, Henry went to the hotel bathroom to splash water on his face. Not a minute had passed since he shook himself out of bed when the left side of his arm became numb. The side of his face also dropped. Henry had just turned 30 and was having a stroke.

As he tells it, there was Ruddock bolting from the room down the corridor, the team doctors arriving, all of it within three minutes of symptoms. The rest was a fug of disbelief, scans and hospital tests.

Functioning and strong

He played 20 minutes against Cardiff and all the match against Connacht two weeks ago and feels good about Leinster’s arrival in Belfast on Friday. But the chapter on his heart is now closed; it is fixed, functioning and strong.

“That’s the way I have to look at it,” he says. “Obviously it was a tough year. But the surgeons have signed me off and said, look go on and get on with your business and get back to it.

“I know they wouldn’t have signed me off if there was any risk and I take confidence from that.”

“Terrifying,” is how he describes the transient ischaemic attack, a mini-stroke caused by a small hole. But it’s now road tested.

“During the 20 minutes against Cardiff and 80 minutes against Connacht I had to get through all the tackles, all the work at the breakdown.

“In the last 20 minutes against Connacht, I was able to grow into the game a bit more. I was tired. But I was making better decisions. Hopefully that is just the start,” he says.

Source of ribbing

It is now a great source of ribbing from his team, although he’s wilting under the weight of cholesterol cracks. Strauss’s injury didn’t happen so dramatically but the two could meet in Friday’s conflict.

Henry concedes that there are unknowns about Leinster. Rebounding from Toulon is a possibility but they have rarely been scrambling so desperately and the short turn around time (five days) could bite against a fresh Ulster.

“I think the Leinster situation and that of Ulster in the past are different,” he says. “This is quite a new thing for them. They have always been competing on both fronts very, very hard and rarely at the end of the season, as far as I remember, Leinster haven’t been top of the table.

“So it is a different situation for them. But Toulon are one of the best teams in the world and they took them to the wire. Of course, they are still going to be battered and bruised and it was a tough result for them.

"But Jamie Heaslip said it. He said it right after the match. He said 'our focus is on the Pro12 now'. They have won big games against us before and they will be coming here with a proud name. Hopefully we can use that short turnaround to our advantage."

The Ulster finish is Leinster, Munster Glasgow. Just the three toughest teams in the league. It’s not hard to see that they fancy their next two home fixtures against the Irish sides.

Under reconstruction

But they need luck – not the kind of bad luck they had in the past. When they finished on top of the table two seasons ago, Ravenhill was under reconstruction and they were forced to play in vain against Leinster in a Dublin final.

Now a home semi-final and a home final – as Belfast is already the chosen final venue – are in Ulster’s sights.

“We are desperate now to gain top four and hoping to get a home semi-final,” Henry says. “We know second will be good enough for us because we have the home final anyway.

“If you think back a couple of years ago, we came first and we had to go to the RDS. It’s kind of luck maybe coming our way.”