Relieved Donnacha Ryan happy to be fighting fit with Munster

There doesn't appear to be any potential bolter for Ireland's World Cup squad, but if a player is to emerge from the shadows to play for Joe Schmidt for the first time in August's warm-up games, then it could well be Donnacha Ryan.

And in his case the cloud hanging over his career created quite a shadow.

Sidelined since March 2014 with a foot injury which particularly afflicted him when pushing off his feet in scrimmaging, there were dark whispers that the problem could even be career-threatening.

But after a successful operation and lengthy rehabilitation, he returned in March of this year as a replacement in the defeat away to the Ospreys, and has now started Munster's last three games.

He hasn't played for Ireland since March 2013, when he was yellow-carded in that sad end to the Declan Kidney reign in Rome, when an injury-ravaged Irish side lost 22-15 to the Azzurri. In the absence of any summer tour, Munster's place in the play-offs is bonus territory for them and, with the World Cup in mind, for a host of their players – especially Ryan.

He has been taught to literally take his career a day at a time, never mind game by game.

So enquiries about his Irish ambitions are met with, “No. I’m training tomorrow and that’s about it. I just have to manage my situation and see how I pull up each day. It’s all about the moment. It might make for a nice piece but with every step I take now there is still a big scar in the middle of my foot and I have to keep everything in perspective.”

‘Reprogramming’

“I need to make sure I recover before training on Thursday. For me, it’s focusing on my own thing. I was miles off the pace, I couldn’t really walk and I was in the boots for the bones of eight months, out for 13 months altogether. So it’s about reprogramming everything again.”

Ryan is clearly a man who needs to keep himself busy if not as active as he would like.

“I did work experience for Can Accord continuity, with Ray McMahon. He was a fantastic mentor. He sat me down and asked me what I was interested in. I just said point me in any direction and I’ll go there. So I went down the geology route, did exams last week and I’m doing a report on fracking at the moment.

“But it’s a fantastic outlet as well. I always found that I play my best rugby when I’ve a lot of things to get organised. I remember my final year in UCC doing Commerce and Irish, racing from study to training and back again, you’re more organised than ever. Maybe I’ll get into the gas and minerals bit of it, bonds and that. I’ve an interest in finance from the degree so this adds meat to the CV. I’m the youngest in the class by about 15 years.”

Having done “entrepreneurial studies” with Dougie Howlett and others a few years ago, creating their own start-up business, it also helped to fill in the hours and the days, and helped avoid the questions about his well-being.

“I couldn’t give anyone a certain time to adhere to. That is the nooks and crannies of it, when people come up to you and start saying; ‘How are you enjoying retirement?’ They were the sort of questions you are dealing with. That’s the reality. It is a difficult tightrope you are walking in that situation. You don’t know what the future holds.”

‘Useless energy’

“It would be useless energy to have if you were sitting at home wallowing and listening to questions, questions on your future.”

He talks of returning to the gym and working alongside someone who was training for the Paralympics, so you believe him when he also talks about keeping things in “perspective” and being happy just to be back training as much as playing.

Ahead of Saturday's semi-final against the Ospreys at Thomond Park, whatever about Munster, Ryan really is in bonus territory.

“I think I’m a lot more mature person and have a better perspective of where I want to go and what I want to do, playing rugby-wise and stuff.

“Previously I wouldn’t maybe have enjoyed as many games with pressure and that.

“I enjoy pressure but sometimes you are so close to the coalface you can’t even enjoy the reasons why you are doing it, whereas now I have such a holistic perspective you can actually enjoy going out training and being able to run. It’s such a therapeutic thing to do.”