TYLER HOPING TOUGH TIMES ARE THING OF THE PAST
Tyler Morgan has been presented with plenty of reasons to quit. The 23-year-old, in his own words, already feels like he has played out an entire career, despite history telling us players of his vintage are merely halfway through.
His fairly tender age suggests he should still be wet behind the ears but he has experience beyond his years and speaks with a maturity to confirm it.
The numbers seemingly don’t add up as he enters his seventh year at the Dragons, having made his senior debut against the Scarlets as an 18-year-old.
Since then, Morgan has spent his formative years as a professional rugby player riding a rollercoaster of
emotions. Two years after making his regional debut, the centre was playing in a Rugby World Cup quarter-final for Wales against South Africa.
It was a blur.
“I was a day away from going to New Zealand for the Under-20s World Cup and then Jon (Davies) did his knee, so they stopped me from going,” he recalls.
“The bags were packed and in my car ready to go. We were up the Vale and I was supposed to drive up (to the airport) the next day.
“I ended up driving home and my parents asked ‘what are you doing here?’ So I told them and my dad was over the moon.
Remembering the South Africa game, he added: “I loved it at the time and I don’t think I quite realised the situation I was in.
“I was young and I just went out and played.
“I remember Gats coming up to me and asking if I was going to be ready to play in the quarters.
“I went out, enjoyed it and got addicted to it.”
At that time, a knee injury in 2014 had already deprived Morgan of a senior Test cap when he was ruled out of the autumn series, with Gatland later admitting he planned on picking the Dragon.
Then, in that quarter-final defeat to South Africa in 2015, he dislocated his shoulder, ruling him out of action for five months.
Morgan then got a solid season of rugby under his belt in 2016/17, playing 24 times for the Dragons and earning himself a Wales call-up for the summer tour to face Tonga and Samoa.
Early in the 2017/18 season, Morgan was sidelined again. This time with an ankle injury, which was followed swiftly by a hairline fracture in his foot shortly after returning from a four-month lay-off.
“Injuries have slowed me down a bit but I was just a boy back then,” he says.
“I just think that I’m more mature now and I know how to look after my body.
“Back in the day I probably wasn’t eating right, I wasn’t looking after my body in the way I should have been.
“Now with all the prehab, physios and recovery – I’m strict with that now. I don’t go out on the training pitch and tweak my hamstring like I used to because I come in and do my work before.
“It was a frustrating couple of years, it was a tough old ride but I do feel like I’ve gotten over the hill now.”
In the middle of all that, he was one of the first players to be phased off a National Dual Contract between the WRU and region, though he insists it was a straightforward process.
“I have put them through a lot of medical expenses, so the fact they are keeping me here is a good sign!” he grinned.
“I didn’t even look anywhere else, I just wanted to stay here and I still do, it’s my home region. I still want to play for Wales, so will stay here.”
He admits lessons were learned from his previous injuries but the ankle and the foot injuries were linked to something else, a condition he didn’t even know he had.
“When I started training and rehab, I just wasn’t making any progress,” he recalls.
“I was in the gym four or five times a week doing upper body weights, I wasn’t able to run, and I was actually losing weight.
“Within a three or four week period I lost about 10 kilos. That’s when I rang the doctor and said something was going wrong.”
In May last year, it was revealed that Morgan had been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, which has strong links with lower limb injuries and it would explain the ankle and
foot problems. With a better understanding of what was causing him problems, Morgan went into the 2018/19 season in much better shape.
Just like he learned the hard way to prevent injuries before they happen, the centre would have to understand how to manage his diabetes.
“You’d go out on the pitch, the adrenaline would kick you up quite high so your blood sugar goes quite high,” he explained.
“You have to inject (insulin) at half time but if you inject too much you go out really sluggish and you’ll feel awful.
“If you inject the right amount, you’re just fine for the rest of the game then.
“Afterwards, it’s just about managing it.
“You usually finish the game quite high as well. Bringing it back down is not too bad.”
He added: “I am waking up at 5.30am now to get a proper breakfast in. Some days if you miss your alarm and breakfast then the first three hours is tough because your blood sugars are low.
“But it’s manageable and I know my own body more now, I get health checks quite often and I have read so many books and know exactly how my body is going to work when I drink this or eat that.”
His all-round game keeps the Wales management interested and he earned a recall to the international fold last season, earning his fifth cap and scoring his first Test try against Tonga last autumn.
But he missed out on the Six Nations and suffered another shoulder injury, in defeat to the Ospreys, in March.
Despite his best efforts, he didn’t make it back before the end of the season and wasn’t selected by Warren Gatland in Wales’ wider World Cup training squad.
“It was gutting, to be honest,” he admits as he stares out over the Dragons’ artificial training pitch.
“I was racing against time to get fit for Judgement Day but I didn’t get back in time for it.
“They told us in a team meeting who was in, I backed myself to get into a wider squad but they picked less numbers, which went against me.
“I’m just cracking on with the Dragons now, enjoying the pre-season here.”
It’s been a long road travelled in a short space of time as Morgan now prepares for the season ahead at the Dragons’ Ystrad Mynach training base.
There have been highs but there have also been persistent, niggling lows that have held him back and really prevented him from developing into an established international.
He acknowledges the competition at his position, with Jonathan Davies Gatland’s No.1 choice at outside centre, but injuries have already robbed him of caps.
“I value all those experiences and feel like I have been through a whole career in seven years, it’s crazy,” he laughs.
“I’ve gone to a World Cup quarterfinal and played a lot for my region, I definitely wouldn’t change it.
“I have learnt from all the injuries that have come with it and learnt more about myself, and where I can take my body and come back.”
It’s an admirable attitude, the right attitude.
“When I went from ankle injury into foot injury, I carried on and proved to myself that I am not going to quit,” he adds, despite being given every reason to.