Wasps prop looking to make up for lost time after double surgery
PREVIEW... Wasps v Exeter Today. Kick-off 3pm, Ricoh Stadium NEALE HARVEY talks to Wasps loosehead Matt Mullan, desperate to make up for lost time
Fit-again prop Matt Mullan knows he faces a race against time if he is to hit form for Wasps and secure a place on England’s summer tour of South Africa.
England’s loosehead stocks have never been so plentiful – a fact illustrated recently when Joe Marler’s suspension and injuries to Ellis Genge (shoulder), Mullan (triceps) and Beno Obano (knee) opened the door for their sixth and seventh choices, Alec Hepburn and Lewis Boyce, to scrap for a Six Nations place alongside Mako Vunipola.
Hepburn took his chance admirably and with Marler now back in the fold and Genge closing in on a return for Leicester, the hard-working Mullan must make up lost ground after recovering from a hugely frustrating lay-off that cost him an England squad place in November. The 30-year-old told The Rugby
Paper: “I fully ruptured my tricep, so that had to be reattached below the elbow, and I elected to have some knee surgery at the same time, which meant double frustration as I had to undergo two operations.
“The triceps injury couldn’t have come at a worse time. It was against Northampton the day before we were due to fly to Portugal with England ahead of the autumnTests, so with the competition at loosehead being so fierce you can imagine how I felt.
“It was a big setback, sure, but that’s the way these things go sometimes. If you’re fit and somebody else gets injured it’s your time; if you get injured someone else gets a shot – and that’s what’s happened in the Six Nations with Alec Hepburn.
“It happens at club level, let alone international level, so you just have to utilise the time off well, try to get better and come back stronger than you were.”
Mullan’s comeback was complicated by the additional knee surgery, but he has been encouraged by support from England’s coaches.
He explained: “Knowing the triceps injury would take a while I decided to get the knee done at the same time. It was basically a clean-out but having upper and lower limb surgery concurrently made my recovery a little bit trickier.
“It was about eight weeks after the surgery that I was allowed to get back running properly so the physios have been working overtime to improve my upper and lower body strength while managing both injuries at the same time.
“But I’m there now and it was great to get back on the field against Harlequins last week. I’ve had messages from the England coaches around my comeback, which was nice of them to keep in contact, so it’s all systems go.”
Mullan refuses to contemplate June’s tour of South Africa, though, adding: “My big priority is to get back some form and start for Wasps – South Africa is too far away and I just want to play week-in, week-out without feeling sore.
“Of course I want to get back with England, that’s my aim, but to do that I need to play my best rugby for the rest of the season.”