Hard work on the horizon as Baker battles to save career
DAN Baker has taken a walk through sporting hell, and he doesn’t recommend the experience to anyone.
But the way he smartly steps clear of a kit bag at the Ospreys’ training base in Llandarcy is a sight that would gladden all but the hardest hearts in Welsh rugby.
The player once touted as a Wales rival to Taulupe Faletau is entering the final phase of a marathon recovery from the knee injury he sustained against Clermont Auvergne in the Champions Cup last season. He is scheduled to return early in the new year, meaning it would have taken 15 months to make it back. By any measure, that’s a long time between drinks.
He still has milestones to pass. And there remains the nagging uncertainty that is the lot of every sports person trying to battle back from serious injury.
But medics assure the 26-year-old that he will be able to resume a playing career that has to date seen him bank three caps for Wales and 86 appearances for the Ospreys.
“The surgeon is more than happy with my knee,” he says. “Apparently, it will be good. “It’s feeling pretty strong, so it’s about building slowly – I am due to start running again for the first time next month – and hopefully coming back in January.”
The bump was a shocker even in the injury-ravaged world and of modern rugby.
Baker had been trying to play his part in executing a pre-planned lineout move. But it all went disastrously wrong and the No.8 ended up stretched out in agony on the Liberty Stadium turf.
“From my hip to my toes it was just horrific pain,” he says.
“I can remember the seconds before quite clearly. There was a line-out throw over the top, with me covering the back and catching the ball. But when I hit the ground my leg straightened and someone landed on top of me, meaning I hyperextended my leg.
“As soon as I hit the floor I was in agony.
“I’d damaged the anterior crucial ligament (ACL) and the lateral collateral ligament (LCL). Basically, the top of my ligament had ripped off the head of my fibula.
“There have been two operations. “The worse thing was having to have the second bout of surgery. I’d been coming back so well, but there came a point when I wasn’t feeling right. I had the sensation that I was hyper-extending my knee all over again. It was unstable and obviously still a problem, so the physios went back to the surgeons.
“The surgeon used my quad tendon and patella to reconstruct the damaged area.
“All the rehab that I’d already done, I had to do again.”
Back at square one, Baker found he had the gremlins of doubt for company.
To a point, they still are with him. Plenty will understand. Away from the roar of the crowd and the banter of the dressing room, the sports person trying to battle back from serious injury can be assailed by thoughts cloaked in negativity. What if I don’t make it back? What do I do for the rest of my life? Have people already forgotten me?
“Of course it crosses your mind that you might not play again,” says Baker.
“Thoughts like that have been going through my head non-stop pretty much since the injury.
“If you are not careful, they can affect you and your life away from rugby.
“You can become irritable and argue a bit, because you’re just angry.
“The whole process tires you. I get home after a day of treatment and rehabbing, I sit on the sofa and I’m just drained mentally.
“It’s frustration and every player goes through it.
“Rugby’s your life. You come into work at Llandarcy every day and you work hard and it dominates everything.
“But my father has always said: ‘You’re one game away from finishing’.
“When he first made that comment, I thought to myself: ‘It’s not going to happen to me – it’s never going to happen’.
“But then came this injury and you think: ‘Wow!’
“It hits home how quickly things can go from really good to extremely bad.”
Is there still a worry that he may not get back? “It’s obviously in the back of my mind, because I haven’t started running again and put the knee to the test.
“For me, there is a bit of uncertainty there.
“But everyone else is positive. “I could not have had more support. The players, physios and coaches have been brilliant. Every morning Allen Clarke, our head coach, comes in and asks how my knee is. That helps. It makes you feel wanted.