How did I deal with stuff before? Guinness, that’ s how
MANU TUILAGI bends back the four fingers on his left hand. ‘ My ankle pretty much overstretched like this,’ he says, demonstrating how his Achilles tendon had snapped in two. ‘I was trying to hand off Dan Biggar, so all of his weight and all of my weight went through my left ankle and “Bang!”, it was gone. Ruptured right down the middle.
‘Maybe it was the adrenaline of the game but it didn’t feel sore straight away. Then I tried to stand up and test it out and it just felt like the ground was moving underneath me. I couldn’t put any pressure on my foot. Nothing. I knew straight away that it was bad. I thought “No, no, no… not again”.’
Another season, another serious injury. The curse returned.
Despite losing their star centre, Sale beat Northampton and Tuilagi returned to Manchester on the team bus. The next day he was sent for an MRI scan and was subsequently referred for surgery on Harley Street. He would miss the remainder of the season but, at that point, Sale’s trophy push was still very much alive. ‘The operation was all booked – happy days,’ he says. ‘But then me and a bunch of other guys at Sale tested positive for Covid. That email came through about all the positive tests and I just thought, “Wow, this cannot be happening!” It was early in the morning. All my body was aching and I just stayed in bed.
‘The team had to pull out of the game against Worcester and that was really tough. It couldn’t have got much worse. Not just for me, but for the team. I had to delay the surgery by two weeks.
‘Eventually I had a negative test and then the surgeon sewed it back up together. I had it in a cast for two weeks and now here I am with this boot. Good surgery.’
Tuilagi’s body is a tapestry of metal plates and stitches. During his years as a professional, his operation tally has moved into double figures. It is the sacrifice he has made for being one of the world’s most powerful rugby players.
‘I wear the reminders of all the injuries,’ he says, pointing towards a long scar on his knee. ‘My meniscus, knee reconstruction, MCL, ACL, another meniscus. I broke my wrist – the bone was floating around and I strapped it up until the end of the season – my eye socket, my cheekbone, two hernias, my pec ripped off the bone. And now my Achilles.’
Was it worth it?
‘100 per cent,’ he says. ‘I’d do it all over again. I’m very lucky to live my dream and get paid well.’
Although he misses playing, Tuilagi is at ease with his current situation. He watched England beat Italy on TV last week with his pregnant fiancee Chantelle and their daughter Leilani. Their dog, Elvis, is never far from the action.
Every now and then, during the course of the interview, Leilani bursts into the kitchen, asking to play hide and seek. He grins. ‘Daddy’s working, poppet,’ he says. ‘Where’s Elvis? Go find Elvis!’
In the past, Tuilagi has been drawn into trouble. Ferry jumping, boozy nights out, police altercations. Here he paints a softer picture. Does having a young family help him keep a positive mindset?
‘100 per cent,’ he says. ‘When you come home and see your family, it’s not so bad. It puts life into perspective. ‘It changes the way you look at things. There’s worse things that are happening in the world. The world’s gone crazy. If you look at it that way, one Achilles is nothing.’
So how did Tuilagi manage his way through recovery before he had a family?
‘Before, I’d probably have just been drinking a lot. That’s how I dealt with it: Guinness. You just try to forget it, don’t you? When you’re not in a good frame of mind, you do stupid things. Drinking most days. It was tough.
‘Chantelle is the one who kept me on the straight and narrow. If I was alone at that time, I probably wouldn’t be playing any more. I probably would have had enough.
‘I look back and think “Why the f**k were you drinking, man?” Monday, Tuesday… whenever. You don’t know that you’re falling into that until you can look back on it. I look back and think, “Wow, f**king hell, I was there”. You can get into some dark places.’
Faith has been a big factor in Tuilagi’s progress. He often claps his hands in prayer when he scores. The local Catholic church is a three-minute walk away from his new house and he goes with Leilani.
‘I pray most days, just before bed,’ he says. ‘Thank God for everything he’s done and everything he’s given and ask him for his guidance. It’s about faith and having good people around you.’
As for next year’s Lions tour, a trip to South Africa with Warren Gatland is not on Tuilagi’s checklist. ‘I never really look that far ahead now,’ he says.
‘Injuries have made me just focus on today. There’s no point worrying about tomorrow.
‘No one is around for ever. When your time is done, you’re done. You’ve just got to enjoy it while you can.’ nWOW HYDRATE innovative sugar free protein and vitamin waters have been aiding Manu Tuilagi’s recovery from his recent injury. For more information, go to wowhydrate.com