Ask Ollie Griffiths whether there are any parts of his body he hasn’t injured and he mulls it over before replying: “A couple I think, yeah.
“It’s easier to list those than the ones I have.”
There have certainly been a catalogue of issues - hamstring surgery, a leg injury, a broken jaw, bicep surgery, hamstring again, ankle operation and bicep once more.
They have conspired to keep the Dragons back rower on the sidelines for much of the time since he won what remains his solitary Welsh cap, against Tonga in June 2017.
It’s been the same old story time after time.
He comes back from injury, he produces two or three top quality performances to put himself in the international mix, only to be struck down by yet another mishap.
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So, are his fortunes finally going to change this season?
“We have been saying that for the last four years, haven’t we?” he replies ruefully.
“Maybe it will be fifth time lucky. Hopefully so.
“I feel good, the body is good.”
One wonders just how Griffiths has coped with the frustrations of these last four years.
“It’s been difficult,” admits the Newbridge product.
“I sort of try to gain perspective on it and think at the end of the day I’m still a lot luckier than most, even if I am injured.
“I am in a fortunate position where I’m in a good job, I come to work every day with my mates.
“It could be a lot worse. You see boys getting injured early on in their careers and they’ve got to retire.
“If I look back five or six years ago, I would have thought I would have been in a different position than I am now. I thought I would have had a lot more caps.
“But it is what it is. At the end of the day, you can only control what you can control.
“If you take that sort of mindset, it does make things a little bit easier.
“I suppose I have just got to trust the process and what will happen will happen.
“I might have the rest of the season going uninjured and get in the Welsh squad or I might get injured and be out for a year.
“That’s rugby, that’s the unknown.”
He continues: “I do just think I’ve been unlucky.
“My injuries have been so sporadic. There has been no general theme to them.
“It’s been jaw, ankle, it’s not like they are all soft tissue or they are all one injury.
“So I do think it’s just rugby injuries. A lot of them have been impact. I think it is just a lot of bad luck.
“With my position as well, I get through a lot of work and a lot of collisions and impacts.
“If you look at the positions back rows get themselves into, they are always top tacklers, carriers, rucks. The risk automatically goes up when you are making more contacts than the majority of people in different positions.
“So I just think it is one of those things.”
Despite the wretched misfortune he has suffered, the 26-year-old Griffiths is not about to change the way he plays.
“I think it would be easy to go into myself and avoid collisions and get through less work,” he said.
“But that’s not the sort of player I am or I want to be.
“I would almost rather be 100 per cent and have the injury history I’ve had than go out and just get through games and tick boxes, if that makes sense.”
The versatile Griffiths - who figured as a replacement for Wales in the non-cap match against the Barbarians in November 2019 - is equally adept right across the back row, but it’s on the openside he is figuring at the moment.
That’s where he packed down against the Ospreys last weekend and it’s likely to be his role again this Sunday when reigning champions Leinster are the visitors to Rodney Parade.
Dragons director of rugby Dean Ryan says the competition in the back row is driving Griffiths on, with fellow internationals Ross Moriarty, Aaron Wainwright, Taine Basham and Dan Baker also vying for selection, along with the likes of Harrison Keddie and Ben Fry.
“Ollie is in a really good space at the moment, the best I have known him physically in two years,” he said.
“For one thing, he feels worried about whether I am going to pick him and he says he’s not had that experience for a long time. That’s credit to all the other back rowers that are around.
“So he is under pressure to play well to be in the side.
“The other thing is it’s like having someone who is 21 in terms of game experiences, so there is massive scope.
“It’s about challenging areas of his game where he can get better because he’s got huge potential.
“With improvement will come international recognition because every conversation I have ever had is he just needs to play some games.
“If he can do that, he will be on the radar and it could be a huge season for him.
“Fingers crossed because this game is hard enough without having to re-start it every three months. It becomes a very difficult space when it has happened so many times.
“So I do wish him well in terms of getting some consistency.
“It will feel like having a new player if we can keep him on the field.
“In my two years here, I have never seen him pass two or three games. It might still be in single figures in total.
“But in all of those two or three games, I have been amazed at the level he can come back in at.”
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