'There's definitely days when you're going to be dark' - Watson forced to consider life after rugby

Having torn his achilles tendon in England’s loss to Ireland in March, Bath winger Anthony Watson has suffered a setback on his road to recovery having required another operation to put things right.

Speaking at Bath’s media day this week, Watson told RugbyPass, “I had a set back with my achilles from the initial surgery and had to have another op, which was obviously gutting at the time.

“But with challenges comes opportunities and it gives me more time to explore stuff outside of rugby and also while I am in training, to lift more weights. It’s not all doom and gloom, I’m trying to stay positive and hopefully mount a good comeback.”

Watson continued, “It’s not always easy, there’s definitely days when you’re going to be dark and it’s going to seem like ages away until you’re back playing. As long as you’ve got a lot more positive days than negative days, you’ll come out of it a much better player and a better person I think as well.

“It gives you much more scope in life as there’s going to be a time when I’m going to have to stop playing rugby so hopefully this has prepared me a bit for what that might be like.”

The initial prognosis has suggested Watson may return to playing this September but after going under the knife again just six weeks ago, he now has his sights set on the New Year. He said, “Achilles are nigh-on impossible to accurately say when they’ll be back but me being as competitive as I am, I’d like to be back January time, but the physios might not be too happy with me saying that.”

Having watched England’s series loss to South Africa in June, Watson told RugbyPass what he made of his teammates’ performances, “We showed in patches how good we can be. The outside backs in particular fought very well. It’s just making sure they can do that for the full eighty minutes, which I’m sure they can do and you saw in the last test.”

As the domestic season approaches, Watson is looking forward to supporting his side at Bath’s opening match against Bristol at Ashton Gate, “It’s always a good rivalry against Bristol and I’m sure they’ll be very strong this year. It’ll be a good test for us first up, hopefully we can start the season off with a win.”