Leeds Rhinos' James Donaldson talks battling back from 'scary' injury and still improving at 32
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Donaldson spent five months on the sidelines before returning to Betfred Super League action in Rhinos’ 20-12 defeat against Hull KR last Saturday. The front-rower was praised by coach Brad Arthur after the game and is set to continue his comeback away to Huddersfield Giants tomorrow (Thursday).
“It has been a long time,” Donaldson said. “I played the second game of the season, got a two-match ban and then got this neck injury in training, which has been pretty nasty to be fair.
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Hide Ad“I had three bulging discs in my neck, but one was touching the nerve which was sending shooting pains down my body. It was something strange and I wasn’t sure how it was going to heal itself, but it was just time and the body’s natural healing process I had to wait for.


“I had a couple of weeks in bed when I couldn’t really move and I started to progress from then on. It has been a long road and a lot of work has gone on to get myself in a position to get back on the field.”
Donaldson is no stranger to overcoming adversity, having battled back from a series of major injuries, including three anterior cruciate ligament (acl) repairs. But - at 32 - he admitted he “wasn’t sure” what the eventual outcome of his latest setback would be.
“When you get a neck injury you are never sure how long it is going to last, especially when it is touching the nerve,” he reflected. “The nerve pain can last for quite some time and I am not fully free of that pain now, but I am in a place where I can play and tackle without getting in too much pain. It wasn’t easy, but I have been here enough times with injuries to know it’s a matter of time and you’ve just got to be patient and try to get better as much as you can.”
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Hide AdDonaldson’s brother Craig sustained a snapped spinal cord during an accident on the family farm early in the player’s career, so the nature of the injury was particularly close to home. “It was a bit scary,” the former Bradford Bulls and Hull KR man conceded.


But he stressed: “My brother’s was c4/c5 and mine was a bit lower, c6 or c7, which is the nerve that goes down your back and down your arm. I think they are two totally different injuries, to be fair - you can’t really compare them.”
Donaldson made his comeback in a reserve game against Salford Red Devils and was among the substitutes for the Hull KR clash seven days later. He entered the action earlier than expected, after James McDonnell damaged an ankle midway through the first half, but was happy with how he came through.
“The pain is manageable, I can cope with it,” he stated. “It was a decent hit out on the lungs, I played longer minutes than I was expecting, but I’ll do whatever I can for the team. Once James McDonnell went down it made things a bit different, it was a hot day out there and we got through a lot of work in defence - and offence, really.
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“That’s what we do; we are rugby players and that’s what we train for - to be in those tough games and those situations. In rugby you plan as much as you can, but you never know what’s actually going to happen on the day. Things can change at any minute and that was the case on Saturday, but the minutes will only make me better at the back end of the season.”
Rhinos led twice, including 6-0 at half-time, but were sunk by two Hull KR tries in the final few minutes. Donaldson insisted: “There were a lot of positives to take out of the game; the effort was brilliant, it was just the execution at times. I felt like we let the game slip a little bit when it could have been ours; just a few little areas we could have been better in made all the difference.
“But it has filled us with confidence we can build on this and keep building on Brad’s new style of playing and how he wants us to play the game. It is not going to happen overnight, it is going to take a bit of time, but it needs to happen as soon as possible because we need all the points we can get. I think we made a great start at it and you could see in the performance that things are a lot different.”
Of playing under Arthur, Donaldson said: “He loves effort areas and that’s something I am generally quite good at. Obviously I was blowing a bit at the weekend, but I will only get stronger. I’ve had a lot of different coaches over the years and Brad’s another one I am excited to learn from, learn his thinking and how he wants to play the game.”
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Hide AdDonaldson, who made his first team debut for Bradford in 2009 and had a short testimonial for services to the game earlier this year, is out of contract in November. He admitted: “I haven’t even thought about that.
“My focus was on getting back on the field, now it’s on building performances, trying to get better every week and learn more and more. Time will sort that out, it’s not something I am worried about.”
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