Stevie Ward: Tried and tested ‘playbook’ gives me focus on what I can control

I can’t say I am happy to be on the injured list for the next few months, but I am fine with it and I am in a really, really good place mentally.

I have got a bit of a playbook for when I am not on the field nowadays, which is tried and tested. I am good at dealing with it, it is not a big one and worse things have happened.

I am just concentrating on what I need to do and what I can control. I have given up getting stressed over things I can’t control.

My leg is good, or as good as it can be at this stage. I was able to walk with a brace almost straight after the operation and I am putting some weight on it and it’s all right, not too sore.

The injury is to my medial meniscus, so it’s the cartilage in between the top of my leg and the bottom, inside my leg.

There was a bit of a degenerative tear from a previous scan, but that’s something a lot of the lads might have and rugby players in general. Unfortunately it developed into a big tear which needed repairing.

It is obviously frustrating, but I am just focusing on the progress I am making to get back out there.

It is a three-and-a-half- or four-month injury from the operation, which was just over two weeks ago, so I am thinking I will be back at the end of June.

There will be plenty of the season left then and, all being well, I will be able to come back and make an impact for the team. Being injured is a tough time for any sportsman and it’s not easy having to watch from the stands.

When you are losing that makes it harder, but instead of getting upset and stressed I am keeping involved in any way I can to help the team, whether that’s speaking to the team or individuals in the team or speaking to members of staff, to offer advice or gain more understanding for myself.

I am always striving to get better and wanting to learn new things. That is something I keep doing when I am injured and I think it is something people should look at, look at their own values as a human being and what works for you and what keeps you in sync’.

I feel very much in sync’, still, when I am not playing and I feel like I can offer stuff off the field.

I had a lot of sympathy for Wakefield’s Tom Johnstone when I heard about his acl injury. That’s a rotten thing to happen to anyone, but it is his second in three seasons and he has a long, hard road ahead.

He is a quality player though, he’s at a good club in Wakefield and I am sure they will support him through it and he’ll come back strong next year.

From what I have heard, it is the same injury, to his other leg. That seems to happen a lot and it’s something I was fearing when I was injured at Saints.

It seems like the end of the world at the time, but it is not and there are people in other walks of life who have to cope with far worse.

I have just done a podcast with Mike Peart who won SAS Who Dares Wins. He went into the show months after he lost his wife to suicide, completely out of the blue.

We sat and talked and he gave advice for people coping with bereavement.

It’s a very raw and honest interview.

If you want a listen go to: mantalitymagazine.com/podcasts and choose episode number 19.