No sooner than the revolving door of the Ulster medical room slows down, the pace picks up again and the recently vacated treatment tables are occupied again.
Take last Friday night for example.
Jacob Stockdale, James Hume and Stuart McCloskey all returned from long-term injuries. But following the mid-season challenge with the Queensland Reds, it was announced that Tom Stewart, Andrew Warwick and Eric O’Sullivan face a period on the sidelines.
But one Ulster player who has so far escaped the injury jinx this season is David McCann.
The former Ireland U20 captain has been almost ever present, missing only the away Champions Cup defeat to Toulouse as the Ulster coaches decide that he needed a rest.
McCann was also one of three Ulster players to go the full 80 minutes against the Reds last week. It’s the third game in succession that McCann has gone from start to finish.
It’s remarkable going for any backrow forward and testament to how he prepares himself for matchday.
Asked what he puts his longevity and freshness down to McCann said “I think what helps that is having a full pre-season under your belt.”
“So, completing the whole pre-season and making sure that you’re focused on your gym and what else during that period. So now I don’t need to focus as much on the gym and it’s more on recovery. And there’s plenty of ways to do that and keep the mind fresh as well,” continued McCann.
McCann also explained that switching off from rugby at the right time is also important as he aims to keep both body and mind fresh throughout the season.
“Well, I try not to focus too much. When I go home and have thought about my rugby stuff and have time to decompress and any work I need to do, whether it be video, I’ll set aside the time for that and then forget about it.”
At this time of the year the URC can be easily forgotten about with the Six Nations grabbing all the attention.
It leads to a stop-start fixture list that looking in from the outside would lead to frustration as teams look to build momentum with the business end of the season just around the corner.
But McCann believes that the break between games will allow Ulster to get things right ahead of the last block of fixtures post Six Nations.
“No. I see this part of the season as very different because there is those breaks between the games.
“At certain times at getting more weeks of training in without the match at the end of it is really important and I think it has actually come at a good time for us that we can focus on getting better on both sides of the ball, implement them, give ourselves another week to review that, improve again and go at it.
“I think it has come at a good time for us and it’s an exciting period to develop.”