Rob Kearney would reject the notion that the third time's a charm when applied specifically to injury woes this season.
Since the Rugby World Cup he's managed to play in consecutive matches on just three occasions, twice with Leinster, in the back-to-back Champions Cup matches against Toulon last December, successive Guinness Pro12 matches against Connacht and the Ospreys in January and Ireland's Six Nations matches against France and England: the latter Tests were a fortnight apart.
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During that timeline he’s yet to manage three games in a row, albeit that once or twice he would have been rested as part of the national player management programme. The primary source of his frustration is a series of grade one, hamstring tears, that have kept him on the sideline since late January, but there is also an ancillary consideration, that relates to his lower back.
The 30-year-old fullback, who will return for the province in Friday night’s Pro12 match against Edinburgh at the RDS, offered an insight into his travails. “Recovery from a grade one [tear] can be anywhere from seven days to three weeks. They were all grade ones, which is just a small little nick.
“When you do it once, straight away you are at risk of doing it again. It’s like a scab. If you don’t let it heal, it can come back again. They are all in the same spot, so they’re linked to my lower back in some shape or form.
“I had surgery on my lower back four years ago now, shaved away a little bit of a disc. It stops that pressure going on the nerve, the sciatica that runs right down through your leg. My hamstrings themselves are very strong because I’ve been doing work on them, a lot of work strengthening them.
“You get no warning on them. You get out on the pitch. You feel great. You start sprinting around. And then ‘bang’. That’s the frustrating part of it. I do my pilates two, three times a week, stretching exercises, massage every day. Literally doing everything possible. And then they come. Out of the blue. That is the tough thing with it.
“I was getting to that stage where it was becoming a little bit chronic. I had three or four in the space of two or three months. I just had to bite the bullet, take four or five weeks off, just make sure I put myself in the best place possible to give this one time to recover.
“I probably would have been fit to play a game three weeks ago but I just needed to be a little bit more sensible.”
There’s a little bit of an impingement on the sciatic nerve in his back but it’s an issue he’s dealt with for over a decade. He underwent further scans recently and saw a consultant who ruled out any surgical intervention.
“I did some 3D running mechanics, everything possible to try and determine [any area that would assist in resolving the problem]. We picked up a few little inefficiencies, a few parts of my body maybe where I was recruiting some muscles more than others.”
His priority now is to play and contribute to Leinster’s quest for silverware in the Pro12.
‘Really disappointing’
“I think if you’re rational and look at the whole season, okay Europe has been really disappointing but the league has been very pleasing.
“I think during the Six Nations there were 25 points available and we picked up 19 of them so that is always a clear tell-tale sign of how good the squad is going. The win over Munster when the squad came fully back and reintegrated itself was positive. It’s more that me need to keep building on that for the next few weeks.”
