George North is currently in the final stages of rehabilitating a knee injury which robbed him of a Lions tour and has kept him out of the game for nine months and counting.
The Welsh international had been in stunning form but ruptured his ACL just over a week before Warren Gatland announced his squad for last summer's tour to South Africa.
But Wales boss Wayne Pivac recently raised the prospect of him returning from his injury before the conclusion of this year's Six Nations championship, which put fans on alert.
Oh, and in the interim, North and his Olympic medal-winning ex-cyclist wife, Becky, welcomed their second child.
WalesOnline caught up with the 105-cap star, who is a Land Rover Ambassador, to see how he's been getting on...
WalesOnline: George, it’s been a few months since we’ve seen you on the field unfortunately. What have you been up to?
George North: Well, I’ve been to Barbados for two months! (laughs) No, seriously, the rugby side has just been about rehab and working hard to try and get back on two feet, towards playing again.
We’ve had the arrival of young Tomi, our second boy, which has been amazing but it’s keeping us very busy. It’s been a case of trying to keep him and Jac going.
We’re still trying to find our way in this weird Covid world that we find ourselves in.
WO: How has family life been?
GN: It’s been good! It’s also been tough, obviously. I’m home more because I’m not playing or away on tour.
But it’s also harder because at the start, physically, I wasn’t able to do huge amounts with my knee, the surgery.
So I put a lot of pressure on poor Becks, who at that point was heavily pregnant. Fair play to her.
Then during this latter part of rehab, things kick up and it’s like a mini pre-season, so I come home and I’m like a zombie at the best of times.
It’s been tough but it’s been brilliant. Tomi is wicked. Him and Jac get on like a house on fire which makes my life a lot easier.
They’re busy as hell, mind.
WO: Unfortunately the injury happened just before the Lions tour – it couldn’t have been timed much worse...
GN: Literally, it couldn’t have been any worse from my point of view. To take a step back and look at it now, I found myself in a good place physically and mentally. I was playing some good rugby, I was enjoying my rugby again. I found my spark at 13 and felt like I was making good progress there.
A big part of that is you obviously want to play for your country, which I was lucky to do and win the Six Nations.
But in the back of every players’ mind, even though none of us say it, are those higher honours with the Lions and that was a big driver for me, I wanted to get back into that jersey.
When my knee went, I obviously knew something wasn’t right straight away but to be honest, I coaxed myself into thinking it was fine.
I convinced myself that it was just a big click in my knee and that was it, like when you have a big stretch in the morning and everything clicks.
Over the space of 48 hours, I was just solid icing and I’d had the scan but I convinced myself that I was fine.
Then you get the dreaded results back and it’s like 'no, you’ve ruptured your ACL' and it goes from being 100 miles per hour to nothing very quickly.
It takes a fair few days to process that.
I was... what’s the right way of saying this... depending on who you speak to, the last few years had been up and down but I felt like I’d gotten myself into a groove.
I found it really hard to process this one when it first happened.
But I’m in a good place now, I’ve had a real tough few weeks of training, I’m feeling good and hopefully I’ll get one step closer this next few weeks, going back into some early team stuff.
WO: I’m pretty sure the whistle had already gone before you got injured and it was all fairly innocuous – does that make it harder to deal with?
GN: In the words of a wise man, sometimes it is what it is. I’ve been very lucky – this is my 12th year now – that I haven’t had a huge amount of big, longer-term injuries.
From that point of view, you ask the questions: Why this? Why that? Why? I peppered the poor surgeon with about 100 questions.
There is not one, exact reason why it would happen but sometimes it is what it is.
That’s the dice you roll and the cards you’re dealt with. It is tough to swallow but very quickly you have to focus on what the next step is.
WO: Wayne Pivac name-checked you as one of three players who could come back from injury before the end of the Six Nations, I assume you’ll be doing everything you can to make that happen?
GN: I’m going full fat milk at the moment, I’m Defcon three, I’m throwing the kitchen sink around the place.
For me, it would be great to get some game time with the Ospreys to put myself in the best contention. It’s about playing for the region, find some form, find my lungs, find my legs.
Then what will be, will be after that. I’m at that horrible stage now where we’ve come this far and for the sake of an extra week or two... what’s the exchange? What benefit would you get from that extra week or two?
But if I get to a point where I’m feeling comfortable, then we’ll push on again. We’ll have to see where the fixtures lie for me, what games are available for me to play in.
WO: You just mentioned playing at 13, do you see that switch becoming something a bit more permanent for you?
GN: I think it will be an extra string to my bow for sure. I played a lot of age-grade rugby at 13, Welsh schoolboys and what have you.
It’s just having that ability to get my hands on the ball more, play through the line, attacking inside shoulders and outside shoulders, but also knowing what the winger needs.
I think that’s going to be the next big step forward, understanding that role even better and pushing on even further.
WO: Warren Gatland used to say he thought you had the ability to copy Tana Umaga and move from wing to centre – what do you make of that comparison?
GN: That’s a huge comparison. For me, I just want to pick up where I left off in the Six Nations. It’s a big position to fill. It’s somewhere I know pretty well but at international level it all comes out in the wash.
You need to know exactly what you’re doing and how you’re going to go about it. That comes with confidence when you get back playing, so it’s the next step for me.
WO: Moving on, Dan Biggar will captain Wales in this Six Nations – you know him well, what do you make of him getting the chance to lead Wales?
GN: Dan is going to do a tremendous job. You see it on the field, what you see is what you get with Dan. He is an unreal competitor and a leader on the field.
Whenever he puts any jersey on, whether he’s in the park, playing for Northampton or Wales, you know you’re only going to get his best effort.
Losing Alun Wyn is a big loss for Wales but with the quality Biggs has and the quality of players around him, he’ll be a great captain for us.
WO: He demands a lot from himself and those around him – have you got an example of when he’s pulled you up on something?
GN: I think it’s every game... and that’s not even a joke! Every day, every session, he is a fierce competitor.
It’s not just me, it’s everyone in the backline. He’ll pick up on things like, 'when we run this move, your timing is not great, you need to sort that out' or something like 'you need to run one out and let me push you on that pass'.
I’m not joking, that’s the way he is in every session. But those are the standards that he expects from himself and also others.
That doesn’t change whether you're uncapped or if you’re the most capped player in the world.
That’s what Dan expects. If he’s working that hard then, damn straight, you should be as well.
WO: Characters like that can sometimes toe a fine line between doing people’s heads in and motivating others – but because he puts that pressure on himself first, others accept his constructive criticism?
GN: Yeah. In sport we have quite heated conversations every single day. Well, I would describe them as performance conversations.
We’re not having a chat over a coffee, it’s very different: 'What were you thinking there? What did you see there? Was it the right option?'
In any professional sport you have to deal and cope with that. But those are the standards that he expects and that’s what you need to win a championship.
He’s done that a fair few times now and I have no doubt that will be his focus going into camp next week.
WO: On that note, what’s it like for you knowing that the boys are turning up for another camp on Monday but you can’t be part of it straight away?
GN: It spurs me on because I’m one step closer. I’m almost back playing now and then it’s all in my control in terms of getting back in a red jersey.
For the early part of my injury, it nagged at me a bit but now that I’m closer to the finish line, the next step for me is to get back playing for the Ospreys and hopefully see what comes of it.
WO: Given the injuries, it’s quite a young squad and some fans will be anxious about that, but you came onto the scene as a teenager so there’s something to be said for having a bit of youth about the place, isn't there?
GN: I think it’s the best thing you can have! I wouldn’t be where I am today without the opportunity I was given by Gats [Warren Gatland] when I was 18.
Yes, we’ve lost a lot of experience but there’s still a heck of a lot of experience in there. Biggs leading the charge, you’ve got Foxy [Jonathan Davies] in there as well. As a young player, being around people like that and seeing how they train, how they recover and how a pro should do things is brilliant. It’s priceless for a young pro.
You see how the best are doing it and you know that’s the standard you should strive for or push on even further.
At that age, they just want to play and they’re excited by it. Hopefully that will pay dividends for the boys.
WO: We’ll all be sat here on the eve of the Six Nations saying Wales should be winning the whole thing but where should our expectation levels be?
GN: I know exactly where they should be. You don’t go out to lose a championship. If I hark back to this time last year, everyone was writing Wales off and we came through in the end.
It is going to be tough. Not just because of the missing players because that would be blowing smoke up my own backside. It’s tough every year.
Look at the form of the Irish sides in Europe this year, they’re coming into some form and you can never write England or France off.
The mindset will always be to go out, win it and win well.
*George North is a Land Rover ambassador. Visit LandRover.co.uk *
