Ben Morgan expects to be fit to play in England’s World Cup warm-up matches as he recovers from a broken leg he suffered in January. The injury was so severe the Gloucester No8’s prospects of playing in the tournament were regarded as borderline but he has treated the biggest setback in his career as a positive.
The 26-year-old had an operation to remove a pin in his ankle two weeks ago and is waiting to be told when he will be able to start running. He has already commenced a strength and conditioning programme. He would have started the Six Nations at No8 ahead of Billy Vunipola but for the injury he suffered against Saracens, having stood out in England’s autumn campaign. His aim now is to make the hosts’ World Cup squad.
“My mindset is to live the law of attraction,” Morgan said. “Negativity breeds negativity: if you think positively, positive things will happen. I can use this experience to my advantage by getting bigger, better, faster and stronger, not sit and fester, getting fat and lazy and never coming back.
“The hardest part has been sitting and watching because I want to be out there playing, but my goal is to be available for the World Cup and that means being fit to play in the warm-up matches. I am on schedule but you learn with an injury like this to take it gradually, going from day to day and week to week. At the moment things are going well.
“I have a lot of strengthening to do around my legs and when I have completed that I can start chucking some serious tin around. There is no point in rushing. When I got injured, my first reaction was expletive-filled but as I sat in hospital, I accepted it was done and just thought about how long it would take me to get back. Playing in the warm-up games would give me a shot of making the squad, but there are so many variables and I will not do anything that is detrimental to my health.”
Morgan will be absent when Gloucester face Edinburgh in the final of the European Challenge Cup at the Stoop on Friday. He may be joined on the sidelines by his fellow back-rower Sione Kalamafoni, who has not trained this week because of a leg injury, but the wing Jonny May and the prop Nick Wood will be fit.
