NEL ON EARTH
Comeback man feared for future during his two-year injury agony
WP NEL bears the scar as a badge of honour.
It’s a six-inch reminder of the battles he’s had to face on a journey back from an injury hell that threatened to call time on his ambitions for club and country.
On Saturday in Rome the Scotland prop will make his first international start since suffering a broken arm on his comeback against Samoa last November.
Nel missed the entire previous Six Nations campaign with a serious neck problem but as the curtain gets set to fall on this tournament the 31-year-old can now look forward with renewed optimism.
He said: “It’s been a tough season so I’m glad to be back and to get another opportunity to go out there and perform for the team.
“There were tough times, especially with the neck thing. The arm can happen any time but it’s been a tough two years.
“It has mentally made me stronger. I’ve worked harder and feel I’m in a better place than I was two years back.
“So there are positives and there were some negatives but it’s just looking ahead now and putting all the injuries behind me.”
Nel admits two years of being sidelined meant rehabilitation was as much mental as physical.
He added: “When the injury happened there were probably doubts. It felt like something was going on having played 10 years without injuries and just a couple of clean-ups. But it’s rugby, you can’t really choose when you want to get injured.
“It was a front-row neck injury so there were a lot of things running through my mind.
“I wondered if I would come back as good as I’ve been or even better. It was down to a good medical team. They’ve helped me a lot and we’ve overcome all the battles.
“It’s life and what you make of it. Are you going to come back just to be back or are you going to come back stronger and challenge for that three jersey or whatever you want to challenge for.”
Scotland still have the chance to finish second in the Six Nations table if they can overcome the Azzurri and results go their way elsewhere. But Nel said: “It’s really important to end the campaign with a win.
“It will give some confidence back and will show it was just a one-off against Ireland.
“I don’t think we look at the Italy game as one where we have the potential to slip up. We want to put out on the field whatever we need to do to win so we’re mainly focusing on ourselves.”