Darcy Graham ‘very lucky’ to be back in action after avoiding serious injury
The Scotland wing helped his side to victory over Wales at the weekend almost a month after being injured against Ireland.
Scotland wing Darcy Graham declared himself “very lucky” to have been able to return and continue his participation in this year’s Guinness Six Nations after his “nasty” accident in last month’s defeat by Ireland.
The 27-year-old was taken to hospital after becoming unconscious following a sickening clash with team-mate Finn Russell in the first half against Ireland at Murrayfield on February 9.
Graham’s injuries turned out not to be as bad as first feared and after sitting out the Calcutta Cup defeat against England, he was back on the pitch on Saturday and scored the 30th Test try of his career in Scotland’s 35-29 home victory over Wales.
“A bit of a blur,” said Graham when asked what he remembers of the aftermath of his collision. “The first 20 minutes after I’d taken the knock was totally unaccounted for. Coming off the pitch on the cart, I can’t remember anything about that.
“The next thing I really remember was my mum and dad in the physio room. Then I went to hospital and had X-rays and that came back real positive.
“That could have been a sickening one because we were worried about my jaw being broken and that would have been my championship over. To have not broken my jaw was big. But symptoms-wise, it settled down pretty quick. I was very lucky, I got away with it.”
“I’ve watched it back and I can’t believe my head can touch my knee! When you fall like that, unconscious, I could have easily torn my hamstring as well. My head was sore for a few days afterwards. Again, I was lucky in that sense.
“It was a freak incident, I couldn’t have done it if I tried but it just shows you how easy things can happen.”
Despite passing his HIA (head injury assessment) ahead of the England game, Graham did not feel ready to play and was glad he was not put under any pressure to take to the field by Scotland’s coaches.
“Obviously, I wanted to play – I want to play for Scotland as much as I can – but I’m just glad we took that extra time,” he said. “That England game was never realistic. I trained the Tuesday, Wednesday with the team but it was the right thing not playing in that game.
“I wasn’t running about the training pitch like I normally would. It was more a confidence thing. My jaw was still sore, I was scared to take a knock on it. I’m glad we’ve done the sensible thing taking that extra amount of time because it was a nasty one.
“You obviously can’t see your brain but if it was like my hamstring, you’d see the bruising in there or something so I’m glad we took that extra time. I think we dealt with it really well.
“I was happy going in Saturday (against Wales). I was fully ready to get going again. I wasn’t worried about going on to the pitch and putting my head where I normally do.
“It was a month, four weeks from doing it to my next game so I just built up confidence in training and I was ready to get back on the pitch.”
