'Big toe galore': A week of rehab and a Red Roses camp return

Big toe galore!

That was the aim this week, to make my foot strong and activate all the little muscles and ligaments in my foot. Every exercise I did involved using my big toe so she is very tired now… she deserves a pedicure at the end of all of this!

It’s been a really successful week though and I’ve attacked it head on. It’s really easy to create self-doubt in situations like this, but I have full trust in the medics and my programme to get me to where I need to be.

I went into camp on Tuesday to see whether I was ready to progress out the boot. I felt quite confident as I hadn’t had any pain and I had spent pretty much the whole weekend attached to the GameReady (ice machine) and Compex.

It was nice to see the positive reaction from Rowena Myrans our newest physio as well as Connor (S&C) who was happy with my gym progress. I wouldn’t usually say this, but I’m glad I still have DOMS [Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness] in my legs from my first leg session back.

On Wednesday, I headed to the swimming pool to do a running session. Running in the water allowed me to still work on my running mechanisms just with a lot less force/weight. It was good to practice some lineout-style jumping and kick through my foot too.

Yesterday I headed up to Saracens to complete another rehab session. I had a few progressions added in including change of direction and balance work as well as banded jumps.

Being confident and happy to jump is pivotal to my performance, so getting lots of reps early on was important to me. The session went really well and I felt happy knowing another day was complete!

When I was driving back I got a call to say I’m going to be heading back into Red Roses camp on Monday to do some strength and jump testing and be around team training.

I found it hard not being in last week as I enjoy the team camaraderie and training in group settings. But the work I did alone has paid dividends and now I’m able to get back involved with the team and help them prepare for our first warm-up game against France next week.

With Test week just over a week away, you know that selection is on the horizon. Selection is never easy, both for staff and players, but what we’ve started to do really well is not let our emotions of non-selection get the better of our training sessions.

We have all bought into the ‘Red Roses First’ ethos and the understanding that we all have a role to play in the squad. This is definitely something that has been worked on but will stand us in really good stead going forward.