JONNY May feared he would never be up to speed for top class rugby when he was sitting with a knee injury on his sofa – but is racing back to action for England's summer tour of Australia.
The wing got his first action since suffering a meniscus tear in January when he came off the Gloucester bench in last weekend's 54-7 win over Saracens.
England head coach Eddie Jones then showed the esteem he holds May in by calling him up for last week's three-day gettogether in Teddington.
May, 32, admits he is entering the last phase of career which has brought him 35 England tries in 69 Test matches and a World Cup final spot but insists he is not done yet.
But he admitted there were times when he had his feet up in the month after the injury blow – which decimated his Six Nations – when he didn't know if he could cope with coming back.
“Watching is difficult for lots of reasons,” said May.
“You have FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), you want to be out there but you can't influence it or help it.
“When you're in the early days of recovering from an injury you have these thoughts where you're like, ‘bloody hell, how am I going to get back to doing that?'.
“You watch it and you're thinking, ‘Jesus'. I had my meniscus repaired, pretty routine surgery but the bummer with it is that because the function of the meniscus is to absorb shock, the protocol is non weight-bearing for a month. So that's basically the challenge with this rehab. You don't use anything for a month. The reality is you've got to start again with a fresh leg because you haven't used it for a month.
“Watching games of rugby when you're standing on one leg you're thinking, ‘how the hell am I going to jump on this again let alone sprint around and step'.
“You can do everything in the world to recover, make the right choices, try and stay fit but we're all human and if you get stabbed with a knife you're going to bleed.”
Jones takes England to Australia for a three Tests against the Wallabies in July on the back of an eight-match winning streak against his countrymen.
He has stated he wants ‘pace, power and guts' in his outside backs and a fully-fit May offers the lot – and Henry Arundell and Adam Radwan might also.
Long road to recovery may lead Jonny to Perth
May has been the quickest man in the squad but might have to give best to that pair whilst he gets back to top fitness, but he is on the way there.
“I know from the autumn Radders is bombing,” he added. “Give me a couple of weeks, that's what I want to say to them.
“The reason I am in quite good spirits and grateful is I thought I probably wouldn't be here six weeks ago. When that pain stops and you break that curve you start feeling a bit happier again because it can get you down. Being in pain and discomfort can get you down.”
May is seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and if he does make it out of his injury darkness in the first Test in Perth on July 2nd then Jones, and English rugby, have one woman to thank.
May's wife of five years, Sophie, managed to move house the week after the winger was injured and had to have his feet up and, along with some headspace apps, playing chess and meditation, got him through.
“She is brilliant,” said May. “Sophie even had to move house because I was non-weight bearing. She would get up and she moved house on her own and looked after me.”
