Gaskell admits thinking career was over
TOWERING Wasps lock James Gaskell considered ‘bowing out of the game’ following successive injury setbacks this season.
Surgery on a dislocated shoulder in November 2019 robbed the 30-year-old of 12 weeks of gametime before his return match against Worcester Warriors in January would end in a further extended spell on the sidelines with foot injury.
During an appearance on The Rut podcast, the 6ft 7in tall forward revealed he had torn his calf or hamstring ‘seven or eight times’ in a three-month period and began to doubt his body’s ability to cope with the rigours of professional rugby.
Gaskell said: “I suppose post-dislocated shoulder it was almost like ‘is my body giving up on me, is this my body telling me that it’s time to hang the boots up and finish there,’ and that’s the first time I’ve ever thought that.
“I rang my missus and said ‘I’ve dislocated my shoulder I’ll probably have to have surgery’ and I found myself starting to feel emotional and to have that sensation where I was starting to cry.
“I just had to put the phone down and have a minute to myself, and that’s probably the first time that’s ever happened to me.”
Alongside Wasps teammate Jack Willis, Gaskell was speaking to James Roycroftdavies on The Rut podcast where guests discuss their experiences of mental health problems, following in the footsteps of ex-wasps duo Alex Reider and Tom Lindsay (most recently of Bristol Bears), both of whom were forced to retire this season on medical grounds.
Gaskell has made over 100 appearances for Wasps and has been a mainstay in the Premiership for over a decade since making his debut for Sale in 2008. Before this season, he’d hit double figures for Premiership appearances every year and had played more than three quarters of the domestic season on six occasions.
Those numbers sit in stark contrast to the 2019/20 campaign, where Gaskell’s four appearances to date are the least of the Wasps’ secondrow stable that includes Joe Launchbury (5 appearances), Will Rowlands (9), Thibaud Flament (16), Theo Vukasinovic (5) and Charlie Matthews (15).
Gaskell revealed a back issue caused a neuro problem in his right leg, which led to nerve messages ‘not getting through,’ subsequently leading to several muscle tears.
“I had a period of three months where I tore my calf and my hamstring probably seven or eight times and no one really knew what was going on,” he added.
“It gets quite dark when something keeps happening, you don’t know why it’s happening, the people around you don’t know why it’s happening and I sort of didn’t really see a light at the end of the tunnel at that point, but luckily we got on top of it.
“I thought I’d sort of come through that period of struggle and got hit with a few more torn muscles into a dislocated shoulder.”
Exactly 12 weeks separated the shoulder injury Gaskell suffered in November 2019 during the Ricoh Arena win over both and injuring his foot during the thrilling 30-26 win at Worcester.
The initial assessment for his latest issue was eight weeks out, but the coronavirus pandemic has limited the games missed to just four; the defeat to Leicester Tigers and the subsequent hat-trick of bonus point wins against Saracens, London Irish and Gloucester that propelled Wasps to fifth in the Gallagher Premiership before the campaign was suspended. Gaskell questioned ‘was it worth doing’ after contemplating more rehabilitation after suffering backto-back injury setbacks. “My wife was looking at me going is your body giving up, my dad’s asking, and you get to a point where you think ‘if they’re seeing it then am I not seeing something?,’ he said. “That was the toughest period for me, back-to-backto-back injuries in a short period of time and really thinking is this the time to bow out of the game?
“I feel I’m a fairly motivated person, but I sort of went through that period where I thought ‘was it worth doing.’ I’d rather sit on the sofa than do that sort of stuff, if I took the dog for a walk it was half an hour rather than an hour, I almost became quite lazy and unmotivated which was not me.” When the current season does reconvene, Wasps will be without one, or possibly both, of their leading appearance-making locks this term as Charlie Matthews has left to play for Kamaishi Seawaves in Japan while Frenchman Flament, a breakthrough sensation from the club’s Academy, has been linked with a move to Toulouse. The club has moved to restock its lock options with the signing of Myles Edwards from Pro D2 side Oyonnax.
That was the toughest period for me, back-toback-to-back injuries and really thinking is this the time to bow out of the game? James Gaskell