‘I asked if I’d play again. They said just be grateful I’m alive’

Scotland vs. Ireland: Guinness Women’s Six Nations

Location: Hive Stadium, Edinburgh Date: Saturday, April 26 Kick-off: 14:30 BST

Although it may not seem like the most exciting news story, a rugby player returns to training and is now hitting tackle bags, Emma Wassell’s case seems as close to a sporting miracle as you can get.

To sum up the 30-year-old, 67-time captained Scotland lock’s story, a benign tumor was discovered in her chest last September.

The tumor then began to bleed. Then the initial procedure to remove a portion of the tumor. Then a second operation, which involved a lung collapsing, was required to remove the remaining material.

Although Pauline had passed away suddenly earlier in the year, she wanted to call out her mother.

When the phrase “rugby family” is used in the game’s dialect, there’s a temptation to label it as cliche, but Wassell’s is not.

Her teammates rallied around her while she was in and out of the hospital like a gang of vigilant sisters.

On the BBC’s Scotland Rugby Podcast, the second row remarked, “The health is very good.” “I’ve been running for four weeks now. I can hit the deck and bag bags.

I’m prepared to continue my efforts. I was concerned about how it would affect me when I made contact, but I’m now completely relaxed.

Bone-on-bone contact, which we might develop very, very soon, is the last thing that really needs to be ticked off. We still have a few weeks to go before we can play.

There was no need to risk it, despite my best efforts to get ready for the Ireland game on Saturday. World Cup of Dreams focus. I’m so excited because there is so much to play for.

When all of this transpired, Wassell was only 29.

A sight to behold is her enthusiasm and positivity, her unwavering love of the game, and her appreciation for what it has given her.

Everyone asks, “How did you get through? ” She explains, “I do think everyone would be the same.” You are at your own discretion. You have no other choice but to deal with it when it occurs to you.

“It’s a good thing I’m in.” There is so much for which I must fight. Playing for Scotland is a huge motivator for me.

The surgeon has repeated it. I said, “I’ll be able to play rugby again, right? ” when I was told I would need a sternotomy. They say, “Just be grateful you’re alive.”

“Yes, I had a very serious operation, but I think I’ve been really lucky in this,” she said. You do, but I’m not sure how you managed to get through it.

I always believed at some point that “I have been given this shot again to be able to play again,” and that this image was going to be taken away.

The driving force was to re-enter the boots. No naivety is displayed here.

Wassell is aware that getting well and returning to the Test room are still very far apart.

She wants to return as a better version of herself, not just as she once was. That will be challenging on its own. At her best, Wattle won 54 games for Scotland.

She chuckles, “Hopefully, this will give me a few more years.” You can’t control your health, but I do believe I can do everything I can.

Isn’t a World Cup the sweetest thing to do? The ultimate is that. Some of the girls have a little stick at me. You’re just tying yourself to the destination with cotton wool. “

Details about how she is treated are what make people have nightmares.

The most terrifying experience occurred when I had to get all these biopsies because I didn’t know what it was and they didn’t know how to operate, she says.

You must collapse a lung to get there in order to make sure that you don’t cause any damage when you’re going through the rib.

One of the hardest things to do is to wake up after that. My entire body was hurting.

“I had chest drains that were extremely painful, and I was in the high dependency ward of Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, and I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t breathe properly.”

I was frightened when there were many extremely sick people inside. I’m almost crying out for, well… My mother was not with me there.

She was a typically embarrassing proud mother, and she was a shining example of that. She was constantly watching my play. Without binoculars, I couldn’t really see anything. lacked knowledge of the rules. It was irrelevant. She was a constant there.

She could see me, which is a big part of the reason I wear a headband.

I didn’t want to put my brother through that, so I made it difficult to tell him about being ill. I would have hated trying to help my mother.

As auxiliary nurses, join the Scotland team.

Please crack a joke out loud because I live my life with a lot of humor, even when I’m lying in my hospital bed with tubes coming out of me.

“And they did, and I would occasionally make a joke and say, “Can we laugh?” We are unsure. We’ve endured a lot of hardship. Not just me, though. We’ve been a significant journey together.

Wassell joked with them that she would return for the Ireland game, and they both laughed off the joke.

The hysterical gist was, “Don’t even think about it,” that’s it. They didn’t feel ready to see her return emotionally. They couldn’t handle it.

Therefore, both the goal and the strategy are to play a warm-up game before the World Cup. It will be unique no matter where it is and who it opposes.

She endured the worst period of her life because of it, and it feels more real now than ever before because of illness.