Owen Farrell lifted the lid on his five-month injury nightmare after leading Saracens into the Gallagher Premiership Final against Leicester.
The England captain missed half the season, including the entire Six Nations, due to successive injuries to either ankle, one of which required surgery.
Coming the year after Sarries’ enforced relegation from English rugby’s top flight it has made for the most challenging period of his glittering career.
Yet the character needed to get through those dark times, individually and collectively for the club, was what proved decisive on Saturday.
The 30-year-old and his team tapped into that never-say-die spirit, dug deep and found a way to dethrone champions Harlequins 37-17, despite losing three players to the sin-bin in the last quarter.
“It was brutal,” said Farrell of what, for him, was an achingly long period on the sidelines. “Brutal watching, brutal trying to make yourself feel involved when you’re not really.
“I was trying to help out and stay in touch, help out in any way I could.
“As a player you don’t want to overstep the mark but there was no way I could sit there and say nothing.
“Being part of a team and feeling involved is what we love. So you try as much as you can. But it’s still not the same.”
Injury might have made Farrell’s own journey more challenging but the shame of relegation for multiple salary cap breaches weighed heavy on all concerned.
“It's been a tough two and half years and it was a problem of our own making,” admitted boss Mark McCall, after Ben Earl’s hat-trick sent his side to Twickenham.
“Mistakes were made. But 99 per cent of the people in the organisation weren't responsible for what happened and that's never talked about.
“Every one of them, staff and players, had a reason to leave and an excuse to go if they wanted, but none did.
“That level of loyalty probably saved the club to be honest. We saw out on the field here where that loyalty comes from, that togetherness that exists. This is a special group of players.”
Farrell admits he was shocked when players like Earl and Max Malins were sent out on loan for the relegation season. “I don’t think anybody thought for two seconds we’d all end up all over the place.”
But Maro Itoje says even at the lowest point, when Sarries’ very future was at stake, he never doubted the core of the team would stay and fight - and one day return to the top.
For it to be in the first season out of the Championship is in some respects extraordinary but, given the calibre of player, less so.
“Saracens have no right, no birthright,” said Itoje. “But we’re club that aspires to be in these kind of situations, these big games.
“I didn’t know when but I had no doubt in my mind that eventually we’d be back.”
SARACENS - Tries: Earl 3, Tompkins, Davies. Cons: Farrell 3. Pen: Farrell.
QUINS - Tries: Dombrandt, Care, Murley. Con: Smith.
Danny Care has been handed an England squad recall - four years after winning the last of his 84 caps.
The veteran scrum-half has been in the form of his life for the past two seasons, helping Harlequins win the Premiership last year and reach the semi-finals this time round.
All Blacks legend Sean Fitzpatrick called for Eddie Jones to recall the 35-year-old in the Daily Mirror in March, arguing his presence would sharpen England’s attack.
“For the life of me I’m surprised he hasn’t brought Danny Care back in,” Fitzpatrick said.
A big part of his reasoning was that Care, 35, plays between fly-half Marcus Smith and number eight Alex Dombrandt - two of England’s breakthrough stars.
Jones appears to have reached the same conclusion, at least with next week’s non-cap game against the Barbarians in mind.
