Snakes & Ladders is a board game designed for children but there’s an argument that it offers an apt metaphor to describe the arbitrary nature of injury in professional sport, where fate rolls the dice and players clamber up or slide down the pecking order on the strength in some cases of random misfortune.
Keith Earls has endured a surfeit of setbacks. It's two years since he last played for Ireland, the final match of the 2013 Six Nations Championship against Italy, and since then has suffered shoulder and knee (twice) injuries, coupled with a bout of gastroenteritis that saw him miss the two-Test Irish tour to Argentina last year.
The 27-year-old has demonstrated tremendous resolve to dust down disappointment and begin the laborious grind to regaining fitness, time and again. Perhaps what sustained him were some excellent performances in the red of Munster. On Saturday in Cardiff he’s lightly to be given a green light to resume his international career.
A chance
The good news is that a player capped 39-times at wing, centre and fullback is feeling better physically than he has done in a couple of years. He wants nothing more than a chance.
He'd like a respite from the injury jinx, so that he can force his way into Ireland coach Joe Schmidt's 31-man World Cup squad. Four years ago he was Ireland's leading try-scorer in the tournament.
He’s run at centre and on the wing during training but has had no direct conversation with Schmidt about a preferred position; the coach’s preference that is not the player’s. He’ll play anywhere he’s required. After all should he face Wales on Saturday it’ll be almost two and a half years between his 39th and 40th caps. He views it as potentially the second half of his career.
The lure of the World Cup is massive. “It would be great, after all the frustration I’ve gone through. Even talking to Luke (Fitzgerald), and him getting in (to play) during the Six Nations, he said he thought he’d never see the day when he’d play again. He’d a lot of serious injuries. It’s tough when you’re ‘rehabbing’ and you think you’re never going to get there.
“The way some of the lads are playing when you’re watching in the autumn and the Six Nations and stuff, you think ‘jeez, I’ll have to put in a lot of work to get there.’”
He’s taken heart from being involved in the extended squad during this season’s Six Nations, admitting, “It’s a sense of achievement getting back into Joe’s squads, never mind a 23 or a 15.”
While acknowledging the competition for places in the three-quarter line, Earls maintains that there is an excellent esprit de corps within the squad.
"There's no bitterness between us. During the Six Nations, when JP (Jared Payne) needed anything I'd stay back with him after training; maybe do a bit of footwork or something if we were playing against England and he wanted me to mimic Jonathan Joseph.
“Hopefully when the team is picked, whoever is there, we’ll do it for each other.
“There is never tension between the lads; I think it is good we are staying back after training with each other. As soon as training is over we are all out doing extra stuff with each other. It is all about the lads as a group, it is not about individuals.”
Schmidt challenges his players, something that Earls enjoys. “You have your roles to do off scrum and lineout but it doesn’t always go that way. Some teams mightn’t give you as much lineout ball or scrum ball.
“There is a bit of unstructured stuff as well and I like unstructured stuff. It doesn’t really bother me as long as there’s a bit of ball in hand . . .”
“I haven’t played in a Test in two years and if I get my chance I’ll be taking it. It can be your last. It is still a massive game; Ireland-Wales, Ireland-Scotland, Ireland-England, they are massive games.
“All I can do is my best on the day.” Time to roll the dice once again.
