THE MOST PERTINENT question posed to Hugo Keenan on Wednesday was whether he’d be good to for Paris.

“Yeah, we’ll see,” replied the Leinster and Ireland fullback.

Keenan politely caveated at the time that he would firstly need to be included in Andy Farrell’s squad for the Six Nations, which he was about an hour later.

Keenan is “a couple of weeks” out from a return to competitive action following hip surgery in the summer, and while he acknowledged that it would be a huge challenge to drop straight back into Ireland’s matchday squad in a fortnight’s without first dusting off the cobwebs with his province, Keenan is game as always.

“So, yeah, hoping to be back involved again,” he says. “I’m not fully 100% back just yet, so if all goes well, maybe. We’ll see.”

Keenan’s assessment of his injury profile is that “when it rains, it pours”. Having experienced a similar downpour in 2018 before he became an established international, he has enjoyed a dry run of it for virtually his entire Ireland career. Then, last November, the ever-present fullback suffered a broken wrist against the Wallabies.

Illness almost put the kibosh on Keenan’s involvement in the first Lions Test against the same opposition last summer, but soon after becoming the series-clinching hero in the second Test in Australia, he underwent a pre-planned hip operation to fix a longstanding issue and, hopefully, elongate his career.

“And I got to do it on my terms as well, which was also a good way to do it,” Keenan says. “Choosing a time to take a bit of time and get the body right for the next couple of years down the pipeline, and make sure I’m in good stead to have another couple of years and kick on from this point.

“Use it as a positive really.”

Keenan is acutely aware that the preordained nature of his five-month absence would be considered a luxury by players less fortunate.

Those include peers with whom he was closest in the Leinster dressing room, two of whom are well into a life more ordinary at Keenan’s age of 29.

“I look at other lads, and that’s sort of what gets me through this period, is a bit of perspective of other lads who have been out for much longer periods than me, who haven’t been able to come back, who’ve had to retire,” Keenan says.

“I was with them over the weekend, Conor O’Brien and even Rowan Osborne. I was with them together, actually, two lads I came up in the system with who both had to retire through injury.

“My thoughts go to the likes of Dan Leavy and stuff. So it gives you a bit of perspective that it’s only five months. It’s still a big season to come, still plenty of rugby to be played for.”

There have been periods of frustration, naturally, during the rehab process: during the initial stage of his recovery, Keenan felt comfortable enough to walk and would routinely have to go back to retrieve his crutches and play things by the book.

But where some players might understandably use such a lengthy absence to recharge the mind and box off some life admin — Keenan has recently moved out of the house he shared with several teammates over the years, for example, and moved in with his girlfriend — he insists that he’s kept his eye on the ball quite literally.

He cites the example of his captain, Caelan Doris, “who was out with a shoulder injury, who missed the summer, but was training hard, and who’s been keeping his mind in rugby, doing a lot of training like I’ve been doing over the last couple of months”.

“I haven’t been off my holidays,” Keenan smiles. “I’ve been trying to stay in touch with the game, trying to keep the mind ticking over.

“I’ve been out in the pitch the last couple of weeks trying to sharpen myself, and although I’m not quite ready to jump back into a game, training often is as competitive.

“And with the size of the Leinster squad, it means we’ve got two proper good 15s going up against each other. I’ve chatted to Caelan and even, like, Sexto (Johnny Sexton), who was brilliant at it in the past; Robbie Henshaw as well, someone who is always brilliant at getting up to speed so quickly, so sharply for big games, being thrown into the deep end.”

It doesn’t get deeper than the Stade de France in a Six Nations curtain-raiser against the reigning champions, whose threats are replete with the return of Antoine Dupont at scrum-half.

But Keenan is hopeful that even if he’s brought in cold by Farrell this day fortnight, he won’t be long heating up.

“I’ve done it once or twice in the past, coming straight in for a big game, and it is a challenge — whether that will be any of these upcoming games, whether it’s with Leinster or Ireland.

“That’s the sort of exciting challenge for me to test myself at a top level, having been out for a while.

“So I’m sort of using that as a motivator to my daily schedule, to my weekly schedule, and using it to drive me on.”

Hugo Keenan is an ambassador for Inishella, BWG Foods’ quality Bord Bia approved range of fresh, high-protein, low fat Irish meats. Inishella products are available in BWG’s nationwide network of Spar, Eurospar, Mace, Londis and XL stores. For more information on the Inishella range please visit your local participating store.