TO dislocate your shoulder once could be considered unfortunate; to do it twice is, well, incredibly painful, debilitating and maybe just a touch careless.
What might make the repeat even harder to take is if it came just as you are on the point of getting over another injury.
It is not as though Ross Rennie - who is suffering just such a scenario - has had his problems to seek. There was the enduring knee problem that kept him out of action for almost two years; then, just when everything seemed to be turning around, he got on the wrong side of a New Zealander and pop went a shoulder. That was a little more than a year ago.
That one was not too bad since he missed the RBS Six Nations but was back in action at the end of March. Then halfway through his second comeback match, it went again. "There was some really dark times," acknowledged the Edinburgh flanker.
Now he has had two runs off the bench, 15 minutes before the international break earlier this month, another 40 minutes last week against Ulster, and is ready to take his place in Edinburgh's starting line-up against Connacht tonight.
"It has been quite a long old road. This was by far the hardest one to come back from because it was a reinjury - having six months out and getting hurt again with the same thing is not much fun," he said.
"It is nice to be back playing and having that feeling of really caring about the team. You always want them to do well when you are injured, but it doesn't mean as much when you are not part of it. I'm just determined to enjoy it because I know how hard it is not to be involved."
Rennie returns to a side with a familiar feel to it as Alan Solomons, the head coach, ends the period of experimentation forced on him by the loss of players to the Scotland cause. He does have problems, though; Ross Ford and Grant Gilchrist both picked up injuries in Scotland's final match and are unavailable.
However, the four remaining Edinburgh players who featured in that game all return to the club side. "I thought they would be good for the team," said Solomons, whose players face a Connacht side rooted to the foot of the RaboDirect Pro12. "They all play a valuable role, and Greig [Laidlaw, the scrum-half and captain] plays a valuable role in terms of the leadership he brings.
"It is a very different environment but [the returning internationals] are all raring to go and that is a big positive. They have all contributed well at practice and are as keen as mustard."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article