Breast-reduction surgery has saved Galligan’s career
England second row talks for the first time about the discomfort that persuaded her to take drastic action, writes Fiona Tomas
For most of her rugby life, Rosie Galligan has harboured a secret. Six years ago, the Red Roses second row underwent an incredibly personal procedure that saved her sporting career before it had properly begun.
Only now does the Saracen feel ready to speak publicly about the breast-reduction surgery she underwent, aged 20, which would permanently alter her body image and drastically improve her relationship with sport. It was a major operation but Galligan told nobody other than her close family.
“That was probably me being naive,” Galligan says. “I didn’t even tell my England Under-20s coach at the time. I didn’t really make a big thing of it.”
As a teenager, Galligan was too boisterous for netball and found cricket too slow-paced, but she quickly gained a sense of belonging in rugby when she first picked up a ball, aged 16, at a touch tournament for Aylesford Bulls.
There was a common denominator when partaking in any form of school PE, though: she would always feel acutely conscious of her larger chest.
“It was probably a few years into rugby when I properly started realising that I was big,” Galligan says. “I was wearing two sports bras to suck my boobs in and strap them down. It just got to a point where I said, ‘I don’t want these big boobs anymore’. They were a hindrance. I started revising for my A-level exams and I just had a constant neck and back ache.”
After breaking into England’s Under-20 squad, Galligan reached a tipping point. Not only was her chest beginning to restrict her movement on the pitch, there was a growing realisation that it could potentially stop her from reaching the top. Two days after winning the Premier 15s (now Premiership Women’s Rugby) with Saracens in 2018, she had the surgery.
“There was an England Under-20s tour coming up to Canada – my first one – and I wanted to be back in time for that, so I had to give myself six weeks to fully recover before starting training again,” she says. “Everything was done to ensure I didn’t miss out on rugby commitments at the start of my dream of trying to be a professional rugby player. It was a bit of a whirlwind in that sense.”
Breast-reduction surgery – medically referred to as reduction mammoplasty – remains exceptionally rare among sportswomen. Simona Halep, the 2019 Wimbledon champion, is arguably the most high-profile athlete to have had the procedure, aged 16. “It’s the weight that troubles me,” Halep said at the time. “My ability to react quickly – my breasts make me uncomfortable when I play.”
She later described the surgery as the “biggest sacrifice” she made for her career.
While she found the experience isolating, Galligan was able to draw on her mother, Holly, who captained the England Under-19s hockey team and later had breast-reduction surgery, for advice and support.
“With my mum’s own personal setbacks as well as how I was feeling, I needed to buy into this next journey, It can be quite daunting having it done so young, but the surgeon made me feel at ease. It’s important to do your research before signing up for it.
‘I was wearing two sports bras to suck my boobs in and strap them down. I just said: I don’t want these anymore’
Nowadays, things are so easily available online, it’s so easy to find stuff for yourself, but this is a lifelong commitment. You don’t want something like that going wrong.”
According to the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons’ 2020 audit, 4,245 women had a breast reduction in 2019, making it the second most-popular treatment recorded after breast augmentation. The procedure is performed under general anaesthetic, often in a private practice where excess fat, glandular tissue and skin are removed before the remaining breast tissue is reshaped. Surgical anchor-shaped incisions are made around the nipple to form a scar before the skin across the breast is sown together with stitches. The amount of breast tissue removed varies. Galligan had two kilograms removed. “I went from a 32HH to a 32D – so, that’s seven bra sizes,” she says.
The result has been transformative. Galligan no longer suffers chronic back and neck aches, while her athletic ability has improved beyond measure.
“I remember my first run post
‘Post-surgery, I looked like a completely different person and felt as light as a feather. I didn’t feel like a tent’
surgery with my mum,” she smiles. “I looked like a completely different person and felt as light as a feather. I didn’t feel like a tent.
“I started the build-up to get back on the England Under-20s tour to Canada. In hindsight, I probably didn’t do all the necessary recovery stuff. I started running again and thought, ‘I’m good to go’, but I ended up hurting my back a bit as I hadn’t done the necessary scrummaging and weight-loading. Having had injuries since, I know you can’t just go from zero to 100.”
As well as battling meningitis in 2019 – when she nearly lost her legs – Galligan has conquered other setbacks to thrive as a central figure in England’s dominant pack. She had just three club games under her belt when she shattered an ankle bone after falling in a line-out in 2020, but her lengthy spell on the sidelines only galvanised her and led to a spot in England’s 2022 World Cup squad, after which she was awarded a full-time contract.
Galligan has maintained an invested interest in breast health. Her ambassador role with Boobydoo, the leading sports bra brand which offers fitting advice and education for active women, seems alien in a sport where women’s bodies are hardly high up on stakeholders’ agendas (breast injuries are yet to even feature on injury surveillance systems across rugby) or the focal point for commercial partnerships.
Umbro has been England Rugby’s official kit manufacturer for almost four years, but the sportswear giant is yet to provide players with bespoke sports bras, which are universally seen as a functional piece of kit. Umbro has been contacted for a response, while the Rugby Football Union told Telegraph Sport it was constantly looking for the best ways to support its female athletes.
“The rugby world is trying to become more aware, but I still think there’s a way to go,” says Galligan, whose interest in breast health piqued at a sports bra workshop at her former club, Harlequins, where she learnt the importance of the “scoop and swoop” method used to ensure all the breast tissue is inside the cup. “Unless I’d been told that at the Quins workshop, I wouldn’t have known. It’s such a huge educational piece for young girls.”
What would her advice be to any young girls or women considering a breast reduction? “Do your research,” she says, matter-of-factly. “Get the right people on board and make sure you have support afterwards. It’s definitely a journey but it’s also one of the best things I’ve ever done. It helped me progress in my career and I wouldn’t change it for the world, get into the Red Roses squad, go to a World Cup and win medals.”
In a bid to inspire biggerchested women to stay in sport, Galligan’s openness epitomises one thing: knowledge is power.