WP Nel feared recurring neck injury would end his career

When WP Nel comes to reflect on his career, Singapore, of all places, is going to have a special place in his heart. After the black, black days when he wondered if a recurring neck injury had ended his career, that was where he made his meaningful comeback and proved to himself and the world that he is ready to start mangling opponents again.

WP Nel is engulfed by a wave during Scotland's recoverysession in the sea off Coogee beach, near Sydney.

He admits, though, that the week in January after the problem returned is among the darkest in his life. He wondered for the first time if he was going to be able to keep going.

“The worst bit was when I was thinking it was the end; ‘I am not going to make it any more’,” he said as he arrived in Sydney for the second part of Scotland’s summer tour. “When I went to see the surgeon, though, he was confident he could fix it. That gave me a bit of hope. It was a tough week with the build-up to [seeing] the specialist and with the family. The surgeon was confident, and here I am.”

The tale of Nel’s woes goes back to October last year when he first damaged his neck playing for Edinburgh against Harlequins in the European Challenge Cup. At first, he thought it was just a two-week “stinger”. When it proved to be more serious, the advice was still that rest would sort it out, and three months later in January, coincidentally in the return match against the same opponents, he tried to come back.

It lasted 27 minutes. The neck took another blow, and off he went again, wondering if there was any comeback at all.

“In the build-up, and stuff, I could feel I was not in the right frame of mind,” Nel admitted. “When it happened again I thought to myself, ‘this is the end’. There was a lot running through my mind.”

Fortunately, the surgeon was right. A disc had slipped in his neck, and an operation to fuse the bones on either side turned out to be a total success.

As Nel pointed out, so much so that had he moved to France they would have had him back in action after only three months, rather than the five he got in Scotland.

The uncertainty was particularly hard for Nel, who has settled in Edinburgh where his children are happy and feel at home. As an adopted Scot, he is determined to stay as long as he can in the environment he has come to relish, and the injury not only threatened his career but threatened that, too.

So, no wonder Saturday was so heartfelt. It was not his playing comeback – that had come in a 30-minute cameo for the Barbarians two weeks earlier – but it was the one that mattered.

“The Barbarians game was nothing. It was a special game but I did not have my team-mates around me like I am used to,” he said. “Last Saturday, for me, was just so emotional. It made me realise I really was back – ‘this is it now’. When I got on the pitch, I felt I was back and fine.

“The build-up to the anthems was the most emotional point. Thinking ‘I am back, this is good’.

“It was my first bad injury, so it was tough but I was thinking about what Dicko [Alasdair Dickinson, the loosened who is still out] went through – it is almost a year now.

“I was hearing what he was saying, the approach he was taking. There were good people around me to encourage me.

“Fraser McKenzie, pictured, [the Edinburgh lock] went through the same thing, too. I was lucky to have him around me to talk about it.”

The injury did cost him any chance of a place on the Lions tour – most pundits had him as a shoo-in before he got crocked – and, at the moment, even if there were an injury in New Zealand, aspects of his game looked as rusty as you would expect after having played 
virtually no rugby eight months.

He scrummed well enough, but was not as dynamic in the open as he can be – that will come with match sharpness. In the meantime, the days of 80-minute shifts because there are no other tightheads to be trusted look to be over.

“If they ask me to play 80 minutes I will, but the way Zander [Fagerson] has been going it might be I don’t get asked,” he said.

“He was phenomenal. I am pleased that he did really well. For Scottish rugby, with the young players coming through now, it is amazing.”

Add in Simon Berghan, who understudied Fagerson in the Six Nations; D’Arcy Rae, who is the third tighthead on tour and the even younger brigade coming through and some of the pressure is off Nel. If that helps extend his career even longer, then he will relish even more for the scare of the last few months.