Megan Jones: ‘This injury helped me, it was a blessing’

Megan Jones knew what had happened immediately. During a wrestling session with Abby Dow, the mercurial England and Leicester Tigers centre took a step back and felt her ankle give way.

It was August and only her second day back training with England following Paris 2024, but her hopes of being part of the Red Roses squad that would mount their WXV 1 title defence in Canada were over.

Jones had damaged her anterior talofibular ligament (ATFL), which effectively connects the leg bone to the foot, so badly that it required surgery. She was faced with 12 weeks on the sidelines.

“We were trying to push each other out of a box essentially; it was a bit like sumo wrestling without the belts,” Jones tells RugbyPass nearly four months later.

“As she pushed me back, I rolled my ankle and it popped, I heard a pop. The physio came running in and I said, ‘That’s my ATFL gone’.

“She said, ‘OK, all right, we’ll have a look’. The scan came back and, yeah, the ATFL was gone. I’d done it previously, about five, six years ago, so I knew the feeling and I knew what I’d done.”

For England, and head coach John Mitchell, it was a blow. Jones had been one of the standout performers as the Red Roses collected another Women’s Six Nations Grand Slam earlier in the year, forming an impressive centre partnership with Tatyana Heard and bringing her unique brand of magic to the team.

But, as Jones can admit now, the injury came at a good time because it forced her to take a step back and process the unimaginable grief she was experiencing.

Four days before she returned to England training, and less than two weeks after he had watched her represent Great Britain at a sold-out Stade de France, Jones’ father Simon passed away.

Simon had only been diagnosed with lung cancer in January, but by the time it was discovered it had spread and advanced to stage 4.

“My dad, he was the best. He took me to every game when I was younger from the age of six. He watched every game, he was my biggest supporter, he was immensely proud,” Jones says as tears begin to well in her eyes.

“It's good for me to talk, I think that's really important. Look, he was my rock. Everything I spoke about, after games he would always keep me accountable.

“He would check in on me and he would navigate me through most things. He would always remind me that there's always someone bigger, faster and stronger than you. But the best you can do is put a huge amount of effort in and that's what I do on every occasion.

“I try and put as much effort and enthusiasm into anything I can because that's really important. Because, you know, you want to get the most out of it and that's how you get the most out of it.

“So yeah, he was the best supporter and best dad to have in my corner. And I still believe he's in my corner because he'll probably live on through me with all of his nuances and jokes.”

Jones adds: “He fought the good fight, and his biggest thing was to continue to play snooker and watch me at the Olympic Games, so he did those things which he'll be happy [about].”

On returning to England, Jones had initially decided to put her head down, her pain to one side, and focus on rugby. The injury snapped her out of that mindset.

“I literally took a step back and my ankle went, and I think it was the universe just telling me to take a step back after my dad had passed because I'd never grieved anyone close to me,” Jones explains.

“I've never been in this process of feeling sad, etc. So, it was all new to me. I just thought, I'm going to go in head-first, the proper westernised culture way and get on with it and park my emotion and be there for the team, be team-first as much as I could.

“But, in fact it was probably the worst thing to do because what I should have done was recognise actually, I wasn't in the best headspace and the team-first thing to do is take a step back and remove yourself from that environment.”

She adds: “It was probably the product of grieving my dad while he was still alive, you know, having stage 4 lung cancer and being emotionally drained on that front.

“But probably not having the awareness at that time to know and say, ‘I need to step back’ and have the courage to do that, which is really tough, particularly when there's not a physical illness or restraint on you.

“I found it really tough to kind of compartmentalise basically, and be like, ‘I'm actually struggling internally but I don't know how to say it’. But actually, this injury has helped me, so, yeah, it was a blessing.”

Following surgery on her ankle, Jones had an enforced period off her feet. “As an athlete, to be told you have to rest, you cannot move, was amazing,” she says.

“I was sedentary pretty much for two weeks, leg up and I just played a bit of Nintendo Switch, watched lots of Netflix, Celia [Quansah] my partner was amazing.

“Yeah, it was a sad time. It wasn't easy but I was really trying to home in on the positives and try and navigate through it all a little bit.”

Not that she was completely inactive during that time. The Red Roses provided Jones with a bespoke training plan, while the centre set herself challenges, such as trying to do 100 pull-ups a day.

“It meant that I couldn't really derail much,” she adds, “but I could have a little bit of my own time, which was which was important.”

The plan clearly worked as Jones returned to the pitch as a replacement in Leicester’s defeat against Bristol Bears on November 9, almost 12 weeks to the day since her ankle popped.

Jones made her first start of the Premiership Women’s Rugby season last weekend, and scored a try, as Tigers were beaten by Loughborough Lightning at Franklin’s Gardens.

Her time on the pitch has so far been managed carefully by England and Leicester but she will take another step in her recovery when Tigers travel to the Salford Community Stadium to take on Sale Sharks in front of the television cameras on Sunday.

The teams start the match winless and separated only by Leicester’s bonus point, and neither will have had a better chance of registering a victory yet this season.

“I hope it is a good competitive game for people to watch because yes, it's a bottom of the league clash, but I reckon it's going to be a bit nitty gritty,” Jones says.

“Sale, I always call them the Scrappy-Doos because they love getting in amongst it with their chat and also their tenacious energy, let's say. So, yeah, I’m looking forward to it.”

Whatever happens on Sunday, the next couple of years have the potential to be pretty seismic on the pitch for the PWR’s inaugural Player of the Season.

Jones has a home Women’s Rugby World Cup on the horizon, a tournament which England will start as overwhelming favourites, while she also recently attended the first British and Irish Lions Women engagement day.

But if the events of the past 12 months have taught her anything, it’s that you cannot take anything for granted.

“It’s given me perspective, to be honest,” Jones says. “You know, we live in this bubble of rugby, this world, and it's like everything relies on this but in fact, win or lose, it doesn't define me.

“It doesn't change the person I am and the emotions I have as well. I'm in control of those in some sense, I can sit with those, and I can navigate through them.

“So, it's just given me a good perspective of life a little bit. And I just want to enjoy it, and I know if I enjoy what I'm doing and I'm entertaining and I'm loving the laughs and the energy around me, I know things will look after themselves.

“What's the saying? Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves. So, I think a little bit [like] that in the sense of, yes, the World Cup's coming. Yes, British and Irish Lions tour is coming but I genuinely believe what will be, will be.

“I'll put my hat in the ring if I feel like I want to do that and if I do, I'll give 100 per cent of my effort and what'll come out of it will be the best thing for me.”

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