Smith’s pain-free at last A fifth Achilles tendon operation has allowed Springbok flank Juan Smith to resurrect his rugby career with European champions Toulon. GAVIN MORTIMER reports. From the Free State to the free and easy way of life on the Côte d’Azur, it’s been some journey for Juan Smith this year. Back in February, after a short-lived comeback for the Cheetahs, he admitted his career was over, the wretched injury to his left Achilles tendon too much even for a bull of a man like Smith. He announced his retirement, accepted the accolades and prepared to embark on the next stage of his life. But then came a call from a surgeon in Bloemfontein. He’d read of Smith’s plight and reckoned he could get him back playing. What’s more, the doc wouldn’t charge him a thing – just call it a medical challenge too good to resist. ‘When he called me I thought I had nothing to lose,’ recalls Smith. ‘By then even walking was painful so I was prepared to give it a shot. I actually went into the operation not thinking about playing again but just wanting to be able to walk without pain in my heel.’ So Smith went under the knife for the fifth time in two years, but this time instead of taking away bone from the heel the doctor anchored the Achilles tendon to the bone and reattached parts of it that had been left unattached in the previous operations. Smith felt the improvement immediately, telling his wife the next morning that there was a ‘day and night difference’ between this operation and the four others. Speaking of anchors, Smith’s family have been just that in the past two years, during the periods when pessimism threatened to overwhelm his otherwise ebullient character. ‘The biggest challenge was staying positive,’ explains Smith. ‘I’d enter rehab, suffer a setback, go back into rehab, have another setback and so on. There were negative moments, often in the morning when I’d get out of bed and have to start dealing with the pain straight away.’ Despite the success of the fifth operation, few in the rugby world ever expected Smith to lace up his boots again in anger. Wasn’t his aim simply to walk without pain? ‘Throughout the years I was injured my biggest dream was to play again,’ he says. ‘But they were tough years and when I began thinking of playing again I decided I needed a break from Free State. I’ve always been in my comfort zone at the Cheetahs so when the offer came from Toulon I thought, what could be better than playing for the best team in France?’ There was more to it than that, of course. Toulon may have assembled rugby’s answer to the Harlem Globetrotters down on the Mediterranean coast but millionaire owner Mourad Boudjellal didn’t get where he is today by throwing money away. Yes, he was interested in signing the 32-year-old Smith but only if he passed a stringent medical. Smith passed and his reward was a 10-month contract. A couple of weeks after arriving at Toulon, Smith made his debut for the club, coming on as a replacement for the last 20 minutes of the game against Top 14 champions Castres. ‘That was an emotional moment,’ admits Smith. ‘There was a time when I never thought I would see a rugby field again but now I’m able to run without any discomfort in my heel.’ As befits a player of Smith’s calibre, a World Cup winner and one of the best loose forwards of his generation, now he’s back playing he’s already setting his sights on other objectives. ‘At first it was great just to have a little bit of game time but now the aim is to start playing 80 minutes regularly,’ he explains. ‘But I know I have a long, hard road ahead of me. You can’t be out for over two years and expect to come back and play the way you once did. I want to reach the standard I was at three years ago when I was playing Super Rugby and for the Springboks. If I can do that by February I’ll be pleased.’ And the Springboks? What does Smith think about the chances of adding to his 69 caps, the last of which came against England in November 2010? ‘It would be a big thing to play for South Africa again,’ he says. ‘Of course, if it came my way, I’d be more than happy to play for the Springboks. But for the moment I’m 100% focused on Toulon, and whatever happens in 10 months’ time I will look at options and make a decision. But right now all I want is to play rugby again.’ When SA Rugby magazine caught up with Smith in Toulon he’d only just returned from South Africa, having brought his family over to France. So now he has everything he wants on the Côte d’Azur: his rugby, his family and a painless heel. ‘The best thing about it,’ says Smith, ‘is that now I can play with my kids again.’
Posted on: Mon, 25 Nov 2013 14:00:54 +0000
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