WHEN HE FIRST felt the discomfort in his foot, Dan Sheehan feared the worst. He immediately sensed it was going to be a few weeks at least.
This was on 19 August during Ireland’s World Cup warm-up game against England in Dublin. Sheehan was forced off in the first half and the initial view behind the scenes was that the injury could keep him out for up to two months.
The Irish physios felt the foot ligament issue could take around eight weeks to fully heal, which would have meant Sheehan missing all of Ireland’s World Cup pool games and a potential quarter-final. Ireland boss Andy Farrell might have had to leave him at home.
But the sun began to emerge from the clouds in the days that followed and Sheehan’s hopes rose. He ended up getting back in just five weeks.
“I think as the week went on, it recovered really well, even in the first week, so that kind of gave us a good window,” said Sheehan, who returned off the bench in the win over South Africa two weekends ago.
“In fairness, everyone in here gave me every chance to give me that week to make sure we knew exactly what it was, and sort of a timeline.
“I think from there, once I knew there was a chance, it was just head down and start working. There was a good team behind me that put a lot of work into me to get me here.
“After the first two weeks, I knew it was definitely a possibility of getting to play in the group stages anyway.”
Sheehan played 27 minutes as a replacement against the Springboks last time out and will hope to be back in Ireland’s starting XV for this weekend’s final pool clash with Scotland in Paris.
Despite the stress his injury initially caused, Sheehan used his time on the sidelines as best he could and feels he’s “probably the fittest and the best condition I have been in a long time.”
As his foot recovered, he focused on a few niggly issues with his shoulders and hips, the little things that nearly every professional rugby player carries but rarely has the time to properly deal with.
But he was thrilled to get back onto the pitch against South Africa and get some game rhythm again. Nothing can truly replicate that intensity.
“Throwing is something that you definitely miss out on when you’re not involved in training,” said Sheehan.
“You can throw a ball against a wall or to a target as much as you want but timings are always going to be the main thing you want to get right. You can only really find that in training, so that was one thing that was on my mind.
“But I put enough work in and there was enough support back home that I was able to get a few reps here and there or do sessions where I wasn’t part of the session but was able to throw.
“So throwing I thought was fine. The scrum, I wasn’t able to scrum for a little bit but I think I didn’t lose too much in that, there was only a few weeks where I couldn’t scrum.
“I think the only danger coming back was that I was too eager to overdo things. I probably gave away two penalties at the weekend where I was just a bit over-eager to get involved and I just need to go back to my own process and play the game.”
Sheehan and the rest of the Irish pack are hopeful of delivering a strong lineout performance this weekend after more issues there against South Africa, whose defence of the set-piece is excellent.
The Ireland hooker said they haven’t been doing anything out of the ordinary since that Boks clash.
“Nothing different, there’s been no new meetings or new plan, we’re very confident in our plan and the way we prepare for a lineout,” said Sheehan, who turned 25 last month.
“I think we were coming up against South Africa who are one of the best teams in the world, things will go wrong, and we probably didn’t get everything right on our part but that’s just a quick review.
“There’s no need to go chasing something that isn’t here. We still have full confidence in our plan and way of preparing. I don’t think it’s a problem.”
Sheehan certainly didn’t come across as worried in any way, while he also seemed to be unperturbed about the outside noise surrounding this clash with Scotland.
He has been steering clear of all the coverage.
“I don’t read or contribute to any sports media really,” said the Leinster hooker. “I was just like that as a kid, I wasn’t really interested in… in your job, really.
“So no, it’s just another Test week for me and I sort of focus very much so on what’s going on in the camp and what people tell me within the camp.”
