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IRELAND INJURY UPDATES !!!
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01-08-2011 10:34am#1
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Stephen Ferris on his World Cup hopes, Declan Kidney and
anti-gravity treadmills
Nearly fully-fit after a long absence through injury, Stephen
Ferris is raring to go ahead of the World Cup next month.
JOE caught up with him for a few words ahead of the first
warm-up game against Scotland this weekend.
By Conor Heneghan
It has been nearly seven months since Stephen Ferris
threw a ball, made a tackle or hit a ruck in anger after
twisting his knee in a Heineken Cup clash for Ulster against
Aironi back in January.
Such has been the flurry of rugby at both provincial and
international level since then that it has been easy enough
to forget about the absence of the towering back-row who
played such a huge part in Ireland’s successful Grand Slam
campaign two years go.
Appearances in the latter stages of both the Heineken Cup
and Magners League for Ulster and in a turbulent Six
Nations campaign for Ireland have all had to be passed up
as Ferris embarked on the long road to recovery.
And that journey, he believes, is nearly at an end.
Whether it will be soon enough to make the plane to New
Zealand next month depends on the amount of game time
he gets in the upcoming warm-up games - although he will
play no part against Scotland this weekend - and whether,
having proved his fitness, he can impress sufficiently to see
off some stiff competition for places in the back-row.
We caught up with Stephen for a chat about the recovery
process, his experiences of the World Cup four years ago
and his bid to give Declan Kidney a headache.
JOE: First of all Stephen, how’s the leg and how’s the
recovery coming along?
Stephen Ferris: Really good thanks, it’s holding up well. I’m
getting a lot of miles on the clock, so it’s just about trying
to get fit now.
JOE: Are you on a different schedule to everyone else at
the moment?
SF: I am at the minute, but hopefully in the next week or
two, I’ll get some rugby stuff done
. I’m sick of the old
fitness stuff; it’s been so long now that I need to get the
rugby batteries charged again.
JOE: Tell us a little about this fancy treadmill you’ve been
working on?
SF: I’ve no cartilage in the knee, so I've been running on
an anti-gravity treadmill to get the joint back used to
impact again, instead of running straight onto a pitch where
you’re putting 100 per cent onto the joint with every single
footstep,. When you’re running on the anti-gravity
treadmill, it lifts you off the treadmill so you can put 30, 40,
50, 60, 70 per cent body weight on your joints.
We started off at 40 or 50 per cent body weight and you
feel like you could run a marathon! We worked our way up,
we did two weeks at 50-60 per cent, two weeks at 70-80
per cent, a week at 90 per cent and a week at 95 per cent
and then straight out onto the pitch and that’s you back to
100 per cent. With the way my knee is, it just needs to get
used to impact again and in fairness, the treadmill has
been a revelation for me.
JOE: What’s the next step? Do you hope to play a couple of
warm up matches?
SF: I think the intention is just to get game time and to get
back on the pitch and get my confidence back. It’s been six
months since I played, but the way I’m training now, I’m
feeling confident and feeling good. I’m the strongest I’ve
ever been and I’m just looking to get back out there and
put in a performance.
JOE: I know it mustn’t be easy to talk about, but it must
have been a frustrating few months for you?
SF: You’re not the first person to ask me that! Of course it
is. When your province is doing really well and when you’re
missing out on Heineken Cup quarter-finals, Magners
League semi-finals and the Six Nations, it is tough. I know
I’ve had a good few injuries in the past, but the longest
lay-off I’ve had is probably six weeks instead of six
months.
Fingers crossed and touch wood, it’ll not happen again in
the future, but it was very frustrating mentally when you
see your team doing well, especially getting such a good
win against England. You want to be a part of that and it’s
hard sitting watching it, but at the same time, you’re
absolutely delighted for the rest of your team mates.
You have ups and downs as well, but it’s hard to bounce
back. Thankfully, over the last four or five years every
time I’ve been injured, I’ve bounced back really, really well
and have come back fitter, stronger and faster. Hopefully
I’ll be able to do exactly that this time around.
JOE: Because you’re more of a central figure now than you
were four years ago, your expectations in regard to this
World Cup must be different to what they were in 2007?
SF: I’ve a lot more experience under my belt now with a
World Cup, a Lions tour, 24 caps for Ireland and nearly 100
for Ulster, whereas four years ago, I had four caps (for
Ireland), a handful for Ulster. I wasn’t the same player
then as I am now.
It was difficult back in 2007. I wasn’t part of the squad,
well, I was part of the squad but I wasn’t really in the
frame for selection and I was kind of a squad member. It
was tough, whereas this time around, I think Declan has
made the squad over the last couple of years and I think
everybody’s going to play a part in these warm-up games.
Hopefully, I’m one of those guys.
JOE: Speaking about competition for places, in your own
position, in the back row, do you ever remember it being
as competitive as it is now?
SF: Well, when I first came into the Irish team, it was tough
to come in and try and stake a claim for a place. I had the
number six jersey for about 18 months and was playing
some really good stuff. Sean (O’Brien) has come in and
done a fantastic job, he’s probably been one of the best
players in Europe over the last year, but you know, if I get
an opportunity, I’ll go out there and try and give Declan a
few headaches.
You have Wally (David Wallace), he turned 35 a couple of
weeks ago and he’s training as hard and as well as he’s
ever trained. he was still putting the performances in last
year and you can’t overlook him either. Jamie (Heaslip)
has been consistent for the last three or four years and
you’ve also got players like Denis Leamy, Niall Ronan and
Shane Jennings, who came on in the second half of the
Heineken Cup Final and probably made the difference. It is
tough but fingers crossed, I’ll get an opportunity to prove
what I’m about.
JOE: The build-up this time more is more focused on
games and match practice as opposed to fitness and
conditioning four years ago. Do you prefer the structure of
build-up this time as opposed to last time?
SF: Yeah, we went away to camps and stuff last time, we
played Scotland away and lost, obviously, I played in that
game. It just seems like, with the experience of the
disappointment in 2007, we don’t want that to happen
again. We’re doing everything in our power: training,
analysis, rest and recovery, we’re in a different hotel now
and we’ve got our own facilities so we can go out and play
golf at night and get away from rugby and it just seems
that it’s working better.
If it’s working better then hopefully it will work better on
the pitch. Everybody has felt the disappointment of last
time and we want to make amends for it.
JOE: Four years ago, there was a very confident air about
the squad heading into the competition and there was a lot
of talk about going out to win the World Cup. Is there a
need to rein in expectations this time around?
SF: There was a lot of talk about winning it four years ago,
but I think the way Declan has come into the Ireland team,
the Six Nations, the Grand Slam, we took it game by game
and didn’t look any further. Even when we played Scotland
at Murrayfield, we knew we were a better team than
Scotland and we knew we could win that game, but we
weren’t talking about the following week and the Grand
Slam decider.
That’s the way he was talking. It was about Scotland and
when we beat Scotland, we’ll look at the next game. This
time, we’re looking at the group stages; he’s not talking
about anything post-group stage or anything outside of the
group matches. That’s the way Declan is, he’s a very hard
man to change, but he’s done a great job0 -
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