Most people in Australian rugby used 2024 to dust off and move on from Eddie Jones and the 2023 Rugby World Cup. But Dave Porecki was stuck injured on the sidelines, and feared his career was over.
On Saturday afternoon, the 32-year-old will pull on the NSW No.2 jersey and run out for the Waratahs’ final trial match against the Brumbies in Bowral.
For more than half the year it showed no concrete signs of improvement and after multiple visits to multiple specialists, Porecki began to think his career may even be over.“It’s a red flag when you are seeing a lot of different people and there are a lot of different eyes on it, and they are confused as to why it is not improving,” Porecki says.
Porecki tried to play in a Waratahs trial against Melbourne but soon came off, worried his Achilles was going to rupture. And so began almost a year of confusion, uncertainty and frustration.David Porecki watches on as Eddie Jones holds court at the World Cup.“She said it wasn’t tendonitis, it is an issue with your Achilles sheath,” Porecki recalls.
Porecki’s recovery now began in earnest. He’d missed the Waratahs’ season and the first months of the new Wallabies’ campaign, but stayed in touch with Schmidt and spent time around the squad where possible, to acclimatise for a potential return late in the year. Porecki attended a Wallabies camp in Canberra in October, but the important stuff in life got in the way of Porecki potentially joining the Wallabies on the spring tour.
Porecki concedes the 2023 World Cup and the Jones show was a “weird time”, but says he learnt a lot about how to deal with adversity, and he took great heart from the fact his Wallabies teammates trusted him to lead the side.
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