Claudia MacDonald thankful to be back with Red Roses
It was in February 2024 that the Exeter Chiefs winger suffered a neck injury that left her unable to move her arms and legs.
That was the second serious neck injury of her career and left her contemplating her rugby future but fast-forward 12 months and she was back on the pitch and part of the England squad that claimed the Grand Slam.
Not only that, despite huge competition in the back three, MacDonald performed well enough to earn a starting role in the Grand Slam decider at Allianz Stadium against France.
It is a comeback that has involved a huge amount of work, both physically, but also psychologically.
She explained: 'Any injury derails you, I've had a few of those in the past that have certainly made me question what would be possible from a rugby point of view in the future. You then live the process of coming back and it all becomes a lot more natural.
'The next thing you would want is to be here in pre-season and pushing yourself. Sometimes it's really important to take a step back and give yourself some perspective and look at the journey as a whole.
'Just being here and making it back to an England environment, being involved in that Six Nations that we just played, that was huge. I certainly didn't think that was going to be the case a year ago.
'I worked quite a bit with the psychologist who spoke to me a lot about the fact we talk about 'return to play'.
'The injury might be 12 weeks and at the end of the 12 weeks, you expect to play a game. She gave me another one which was 'return to performance'.
'In my head, I think before that conversation, it was that you get out on the pitch at the end of the injury whereas obviously especially with the injury I had and it's the case with a lot of longer-term injuries, getting out on the pitch is the big first tick but there are so many more ticks after that.
'So I tried to stay focused on small targets along the way. I wanted to get out there, then I wanted to make a tackle, run with the ball. I gave myself another period of time until I had this return to performance and pride in how I was playing. That was really big for me because it meant I was able to give myself some leniency.'
After impressing for England as they continued a winning streak that dates all the way back to the last World Cup final, MacDonald is back training with the Red Roses as they gear up to host the tournament.
They enter as favourites after a dominant stretch, although the Grand Slam decider against France ended up being a one-point game – only the second time that a team has finished within a score against England since 2022 – Les Bleues also did so two years ago.
Three years ago, MacDonald travelled to the World Cup with an England team that was also favoured to win the tournament, eventually losing 34-31 to hosts New Zealand in the final.
During that campaign, she was initially selected as a scrum-half, before shifting to wing by the time the action started. In fact, her only appearance at scrum-half came in the final after Leanne Infante was a late withdrawal, with MacDonald acting as cover for starter Lucy Packer.
She said: 'The last World Cup, I trained as a scrum-half and thought I was going out to the World Cup as a scrum-half. But in training, we had four nines consistently and only had three wingers so one of us was always training on the wing.
'I probably enjoyed it far more than the other scrum-halves enjoyed it. I was a winger before I was a scrum-half, I've flip-flopped between the two. It was a big part of what I did, the ability to play both. When I had opportunities to train on the wing, I threw myself at it.
'Since that World Cup, I've been solidly a winger, I'm guessing if something happened and we needed someone at scrum-half, I'd like to hope they would put me in.'
Fit again, and with that versatility to her name, MacDonald is ready to play a starring role for the Red Roses this summer.
Purchase your tickets to the Autumn Nations Series at Allianz Stadium https://www.eticketing.co.uk/rfu/
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