Hey {{First_Name|mate}},

I finally had my second knee op.

This one was to remove the wire they originally put in when I completely snapped my patella tendon 18 months ago.

What hit me most was how different this surgery felt compared to the first one.

The first time was chaos.

I went from lying on the pitch to surgery within 2 days.

No time to think.
No time to prepare.
No real idea what was coming next.

I didn’t know when things would happen.
I didn’t know how I’d feel after.
I didn’t know what recovery would look like.
I didn’t know if I’d even play again.

That was probably the hardest part.

Not just the injury itself.
The uncertainty.

It’s hard to stay motivated when everything feels up in the air and you’re just trying to get through the next day, the next appointment, the next small bit of progress.

This time was different.

I had time.

The date was planned.
I could deload my training.
I could get my head right.
I could think ahead about recovery instead of reacting to everything after the fact.

And that made a massive difference.

The op still had to happen.
Recovery still has to be done.
But going into it prepared gave me a level of control I didn’t have the first time.

That’s the thing about preparation.

It doesn’t make hard things easy.
But it does stop them becoming harder than they need to be.

And that doesn’t just apply to surgery.

It applies to rugby too.

Train like a player,
Craig Jones
Rugby Performance Coach