Jamie Roberts: 'A fractured skull did sound scary...'
Jamie Roberts tells The Independent's James Corrigan about overcoming injury to be named outstanding player of the Lions tour and Wales' best-looking man.
"It is fair to say that as the midnight chimes hurtled us into the new year of 2009, Roberts had reached the bottom point of the Big Dipper. A month before, he had fractured his skull at the beginning of the Test against Australia and, after famously carrying on for 10 minutes, he eventually obeyed the warning jolts flashing around his cranium. It meant a spell on the sidelines and the doubts inevitably surfaced. "Of course they did," he recalls. "They do any time you have an injury. And a fractured skull does sound quite scary. But I just had faith in my doctors and in the end I was only out six weeks."
"It doubtless helped that Roberts is studying to become a doctor and knows a thing or two about the body's recovery powers. Those rugby-loving folk at the University of Wales have allowed their most popular student to split his fourth year over two years. That still means afternoons and evenings crouched over the books while his team-mates are flat out on the sofa, but Roberts would not have it any other way. "Yeah, I get tired a lot," he says. "But I actually think it's beneficial. It helps me turn off and gives me some balance."
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