Beibhinn Parsons: 'I thought lightning couldn't strike twice, then I was in the same position again'
Beibhinn Parsons insists she really cannot complain as she surveys a sun-kissed Aviva Stadium field replete with delighted, rugby-playing children.
The Ireland wing is looking down on the annual ALDI Play Rugby Festival as kids from nationals schools from around the country grab their opportunity to play on the hallowed turf and a blitz that oozes positivity. Parsons, 24, is also full of the joys as she drinks in the spectacle and looks ahead to a return to action herself.
She really does have every reason to gripe, though, given the ill-fortune that beset her with two separate leg breaks inside five months last year.
It is a year since she last played for the Ireland XVs in the 2024 Guinness Women's Six Nations with her injuries sustained on sevens duty at the Paris Olympics and then again in Cape Town last December, causing her to miss the 2025 championship just gone.
Yet the prize of a place in Ireland's World Cup campaign this autumn remains in front of her and explains her cheery outlook, for Parsons is targeting a return to the training pitch in four weeks as part of Scott Bemand's pre-tournament squad.
Parsons has had to be patient, Ireland squad updates during the Six Nations campaign just gone hinted at a return during the championship but the Connacht star was happy to listen to expert advice and continues to rehab as her squad-mates take a well-earned break.
Ireland winger Beibhinn Parsons at the Aldi Play Rugby National Festival. Pic: ©INPHO/Laszlo Geczo
'So I got injured at the Olympics, broke my fibula and a couple of ligaments. Came back maybe a bit too soon and did it all over again.
'So this time around, the medics and everyone just have my best interests at heart and just said give it all the time it needs and more. So that's where I'm at right now. I'm still in rehab, building up and hopefully good to go for the pre-season.
'Come the start of June we're in for our first pre-season camp. So that's my target, to be back fully fit and ready to go for then.'
If all goes to plan, Parsons hopes to get her first gametime of 2025 in at least one of two warm-up matches prior to the World Cup pool opener against Japan in Northampton on August 24, with Ireland meeting Scotland in Cork on August 2 and Canada in Belfast seven days later.
The chances of lightning striking three times inside a year and dealing Parsons another cruel blow are hopefully infinitesimal and she admitted the second break left her in utter shock.
'It's been really weird because the first time, I thought it gave me a big long chance to reflect on all the rugby I'd played so far and I just felt really, really grateful for the career that I'd had up to that point.
'I thought injuries are just part of professional sport and this is just my medicine, I have to take it and that's fine.
'The second time, I wish that was the same mindset I had, but I was a bit heartbroken. I just thought lightning couldn't strike twice and then I was in the same position again.
'It's funny actually, like when I watched back the injury, the second time, didn't cry, didn't scream, didn't let out any type of yell. The physio didn't even come on for ages, because he didn't even think I was in pain but my world was just sort of falling down around me.
'It was just complete and utter shock the second time. Shock and then sadness. But this rehab block has been really productive and I have been away from playing the game, but I've had loads of chance to work on running technique and strength and stuff like that, so there's pros and cons to everything.'
For anyone of a squeamish disposition, the prospect of watching back any injury is anathema, but reviewing your own leg breaking for a second time? Even Parsons admitted that was above and beyond the call of duty.
'Yeah, I was sort of like, 'do I want to see this?', but I ripped the Band-Aid off that night and I was like 'give me a look at it'.
'It just looked so weird. I go to reach back for my foot and it was dislocated, so I was just like padding the ground going 'is this even my foot?' and like 'what is going on?' it's complete and utter shock.'
Understandably, the mental rehabilitation has been, and remains, just as important as her physical recovery.
'There definitely is a mental hurdle for me to get back. Like the first few training sessions that I watched back or the few games that I watched live when I'd see those sort of similar tackles or similar mechanisms, honestly my heart would start racing.
'But now that I'm back into it, I've built up my contact and returned to contact really gradually, and I've had lots of exposures at different levels to get that next milestone and then feel like I've that in the bag and go onto the next one.
'So it was definitely as much a mental process as a physical one and with the contact side of things, I still definitely have a mental hurdle that I'm getting over, but it is an important part of your return to play.
'It's great when medics and your coaches really acknowledge that because it's huge. You can't play if you're playing in fear.'
Parsons considers herself fortunate just get to the shot and is talking to the Irish Examiner on the day Ireland team-mate Dorothy Wall was ruled out of the tournament due to the Achilles tendon injury she sustained a week earlier against Scotland. Wall's desperately bad news came only a couple of weeks after fellow forward Erin King also had her World Cup hopes taken away by a serious knee injury.
'We had a barbecue the other day and Dorothy was laid up on a lounger and then we had Erin King laid up on another lounger and people were like getting up, 'can you pass me the ketchup?' and their backs were broken. We're like, 'Jesus, we're all a bunch of cripples and we're in our early 20s.
'Being injured gives you so much time to reflect and even with the two girls getting injured, I'm like 'god, I got an Olympics and I'm going to be back in contention for a World Cup', like I'm actually one of the lucky ones.
'It's just how you frame it and I've so much to go after right now, like fitness and confidence and getting that step in and moving off both legs and stuff. And the depth that Scott has grown in our squad is massive. The back three has been really competitive, so I'm the bottom of the barrel and I really have to earn my stripes when I get back in.'
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