“I got a little bit of a nasty one.”
James Lowe has spoken about a foot injury he played on with during the 2023 World Cup, and which saw him miss three months of action, following the tournament.
The Leinster winger only featured in one of Ireland’s World Cup warm-ups, last summer, but did enough in that win over England, and in training sessions, to lock down his World Cup place. He started all five of Ireland’s World Cup games, scoring two tries, and finished each one, bar the Scotland game when he got an eye injury.
Following the quarter final loss to New Zealand, though, the 31-year-old was given some time off to get a foot injury looked into, and to rehab it. He returned for two Champions Cup pool games, then started all five of Ireland’s games in the Six Nations, scoring four tries.
On Friday, at The RDS, Lowe scored again in just his third Leinster appearance of the season – a 47-21 win over The Bulls. Ahead of this weekend’s Champions Cup ‘Last 16’ clash with Leicester Tigers, at Aviva Stadium, Lowe spoke of that “nasty” injury that was a constant niggle during the World Cup.
James Lowe on World Cup injury
James Lowe has scored nine tries in his 14 starts, so far, this season and is desperate to carry that form into the final months, as trophies are handed out and Andy Farrell selects a touring squad for South Africa.
Lowe was part of the last Leinster squad that won the Champions Cup in 2017/18 but he missed out on selection for the match-day 23 for the final. He is desperate, then, to end the province’s longer than anticipated wait for that fifth star.
Asked about getting straight back to his best despite a near three-month lay-off, following the World Cup, Lowe commented:
“I got a little bit of a nasty one. I tore the muscles under my foot and, during the World Cup, I was just hanging on.
“I was absolutely stoked to be able to train every single session, during the World Cup, and I played every single game that I could. [The foot] just needed time, it needed a bit of TLC, a bit of sun. Look, I rehabbed the absolute bollocks out of that, to get myself back into a position to be able to play at the highest level. I got that opportunity and my body is in great shape at the moment. The boys around me have given me so much confidence to do what I like to be able to do on the rugby field – that’s hit people, when I need to, and run away from them when I can.”
Lowe says he is happy, healthy and ready to kick on for the season. On the upcoming challenge of Leicester Tigers, Lowe is well aware of the England internationals they will put on deck for this weekend’s Champions Cup encounter. Three of their forwards – Dan Coles, Ollie Chessum and George Martin – were involved in the recent Six Nations game at Twickenham, that England won at the death.
“They stopped us winning the Grand Slam, that was the unfortunate thing,” Lowe noted.
“Look,” he added, “in terms of that game, we were put under an immense amount of pressure and England had their backs against the wall after the week before [by losing to Scotland] and they stepped up and managed to topple us over, so fair play to them.
“There are some English internationals in this Leicester side who are going to be probably playing the same tune as what they were in the week leading up to our Test match.”
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