Jean hails recovery

Muhammad Ali once said he was so mean that he made medicine sick, but South Africa’s rugby champion, Jean de Villiers, is thanking a revolutionary new medical procedure for what he described as his miraculous recovery from a major knee injury at the end of November.

De Villiers, below, speaking at a SuperSport luncheon yesterday, said he was very confident he’d be at the World Cup.

“It’s a miracle really that I feel so good. When my foot was lying next to my ear in Cardiff, I thought it would be nice just to walk again! All my tendons and my hamstring had gone.

“Usually they take one of your other tendons and use some of that as a graft, but after five previous knee operations everything had already been used! So they used an artificial ligament,” De Villiers explained.

“My recovery has gone very well and five months down the line I’m running and changing direction. I’m close to sprinting and doing some stepping and then I’ll join some team training in June. Hopefully I can play a couple of games then in July and be available for selection.

“The only problem is there’s not much rugby in July. Going straight into Test rugby would be too much, so maybe I’ll play some club rugby.

“Although that might be even more risky – SuperSport will have to cover the game so if anyone dives in on my knee, we’ll have it on camera and they can be held accountable!” De Villiers joked.

De Villiers acknowledged that he has had to dig deep to get as far as he has in his recovery.

“The mental side has been massive and I’ve been doing rehab six hours a day. It’s easier having been there before because I know what to do and that it’s not going to be easy. I know how tough the road is and how much hard work is required,” the Springbok captain said.