Fitzgerald can enjoy a decent stretch in Blue with new deal
PAIN and swelling are the first attendees at the site of a cruciate ligament injury. Luke Fitzgerald will still be feeling some physical discomfort after he was creased in Rome by the latest misfortune in his career.
High- calibre athletes who suffer serious knee injuries are often required to start rehabilitative work before they have surgery. There are before Luke Fitzgerald, then, some long, sore and hard days.
It is messy, painful and frustrating stuff for a man conditioned to be outside pushing himself as hard as he can — and yet Luke Fitzgerald woke up this morning to a world that has not looked so secure for a long time.
Pain i s nothing compared to uncertainty. A swollen knee cannot cause the kind of worry a dwindling contract can.
Yesterday morning there was a brief but concentrated blizzard of speculation insisting Fitzgerald had signed for Munster. Within hours Leinster announced a new two-year contract for the player but in the hours between a confident tweet saying he was going south and the
Pain is nothing compared to uncertainty
press release from Leinster declaring he was staying east, the rumour made sense.
The career of Fitzgerald has been fractured and unsure enough to make the rumours seem true: injury, contract speculation, and flat-lining form have all been prominent in making his career seem like a sporting soap opera, so a dramatic journey from east to southwest was just one more jumpy plotline.
Instead, there is now stability in the career of Fitzgerald. He needs it, judging by the progress he was making after returning from serious neck surgery, he, Leinster and Ireland will all benefit.
‘I’m delighted to commit my future here,’ the player said in press-release speak last night. ‘ It is hugely frustrating to miss the run-in to the campaign but I’m looking forward to beginning my rehab over the coming weeks and getting back in a blue shirt next season.’
Do that, and a return to the green shirt won’t be far behind. However, the landscape Fitzgerald returns to at Leinster could determine the rest of his career — and it could have implications for Ireland, too.
Had the player been lost to Munster — and sources in the south suggested there had been contact — it would have constituted a disaster for Leinster. Not only would they have lost a good player, but Leinster would have been without a talent who can cover a number of positions. And plugging holes could be a significant part of the Leinster playbook next term.
Isa Nacewa is leaving professional rugby and returning to the southern hemisphere, Andrew Conway is one Leinster player who is taking the road south to Munster, and Fionn Carr will be back at Connacht next season after his second chance at Leinster life did not work out.
Then there i s the wait f or a decision on Brian O’Driscoll’s future: the 34-year-old could be retired by the end of the Lions series, while Gordon D’Arcy is 33 and closer to the end than the beginning of his rugby life.
Fitzgerald can cover the positions occupied by the five players mentioned above, and losing that kind of flexibility from his squad would have been a big loss to Joe Schmidt. Out half is one place where Fitzgerald (above) cannot do time, but the loss of Jonathan Sexton to life in Paris is the biggest disruption of all in the Leinster back line, and retaining experienced talent like Fitzgerald is important for the province.
Getting him fit is most important of all, but a two-year contract speaks
He would have been a big loss to Joe Schmidt
to Leinster’s faith in Fitzgerald. He is renowned for his mental strength and also the diligence he brings to his professional life, virtues one might presume are present in all pro careers but that is not always the case.
There may be an assumption that the left wing will be his home when Fitzgerald returns to fitness, but when he first emerged into professional rugby, the player was spoken of as O’Driscoll’s long-term successor.
He has the strength, the footwork and the defensive aptitude for life at outside centre, and were he to emerge in that position it would solve a big problem not only for the province but also for the country.
Declan Kidney seemed determined at one point to turn Keith Earls into the next O’Driscoll, but the Munster player has never convinced consistently in the No 13 shirt.
Speak to some at Connacht and they will insist until they are blue in the face that Robbie Henshaw will be an Ireland outside centre in the future.
Fitzgerald, though, could take advantage of a settled future to make his case.
Even if O’Driscoll does solider on for 12 more months, he will have to be handled with even more care than usual. And when Fitzgerald returns, the national team will not be an immediate concern, giving him time and space to imagine a role for himself that makes the best use of obvious talents for him, for Leinster and for Ireland.