Interview with Denis Hickie: Johnny Watterson talks to the Ireland winger who is looking ahead after an operation on his Achilles tendon last Friday
The Ireland winger Denis Hickie had an operation on his Achilles tendon last Friday, the injury that put an end to his World Cup campaign and winter season. The operation reconnects the bottom of the calf muscle, where the Achilles tendon is located, to the top of the heel, where it should be anchored.
Hickie got out of hospital on Sunday and is now immobile and in plaster. If all goes well, Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan will have his attacking runner back playing rugby six months from the time of incurring the injury.
When Hickie went down in a ruck against Australia and didn't get up, the likelihood is that the Achilles tendon had ruptured, or snapped, before he had even made contact. It is not the type of injury that athletes get by being stood on in rucks or mauls or being hit, but one that happens when pushing off or making a movement that unduly stretches that area of the leg.
Hickie was well warmed up when it happened so he probably came under an unusual pressure, although it's not uncommon for it to happen to weekend hackers stretching for drop shots in tennis or squash.
"I can't exactly be sure when it happened," says the recuperating Hickie. "I was coming at a good pace and someone tackled me, grabbed me by the leg and sort of pinned my foot flat on the ground. At that stage my whole body was still going forward with my heel on the ground and I think that's when it went."
Dr Jim McShane, the Leinster team doctor, is not unfamiliar with the nature of the injury, one that Irish back-row Simon Easterby also suffered earlier in his career.
"Typically it feels like you have been hit by a sniper and you go down," he says. "Then you might look around to see who it was that hit you and there is no one there. You cannot walk and normally you need major treatment. A surgeon is required to sew it back together and maybe augment it with a small muscle in a process called surgery with augmentation.
"You would then go into plaster for eight to 12 weeks and after that rehabilitation immediately."
While the Six Nations Championship is out of the question, Hickie should be back playing in May. If Leinster turn around their form and make it to a European Cup final on the weekend of May 22nd-23rd, it could be an optimistic target, otherwise Ireland's summer tour to South Africa looks like being more realistic. The dates are not yet fixed but it will probably take place in June.
"I spoke to (Dr) Bill Quinlan after the operation. He said he was very happy and that it was nice and tight," says Hickie. "Apparently the requirement of my Achilles tendon is different from someone who isn't a full-time athlete. He said it's very important that a sport's guy gets it done tight.
"It's the longest time I've ever been out with an injury. I don't know what I'll do, probably some sort of course. I haven't really thought about it. At the moment I'm completely immobile. Can't drive a car. Just sitting around. It's more an inconvenient operation than a very complicated one.
"I also spoke to Simon Easterby about it. He said it's tedious and you've to learn to walk again because of the muscle wastage. You do that with heel raises and physio. But, you know, I'll do what I'm supposed to do."
The difference between a top athlete like Hickie, who is very much an athletically-built rugby player who relies heavily on his explosive running, and a part-timer is that his rehabilitation will be carefully monitored. It will also be his principal aim for the winter and that allows him to devote a lot of time towards getting it right.
"There is no reason not to get back to the way he was before it happened," says McShane. "He is a fit and healthy guy, who looks after himself and it is his main focus.
"It is different if the injury happens to a desk-bound individual who goes to a physio on the way home from work. I expect him to be back within weeks with Leinster, where he will also receive the best treatment."
