Warrington Wolves' Connor Wrench on recovery from ACL injury

Forced to watch on and build yourself back up while your teammates prepare themselves for another campaign is a tough ask for anybody, let alone a player at the very start of their senior career.

That is what is facing Connor Wrench over the coming weeks and months, but he is determined to make it a positive experience.

Having suffered the dreaded ACL injury against Toulouse Olympique in August, a nine-month road to recovery opened itself up in front of the prodigious outside back.

He is a third of the way down it and while supporters will not see him out on the field until May at the earliest, they will be heartened and impressed by his attitude towards what lies ahead.

Connor Wrench at last week's 2023 kit launch (Image: Mike Boden)

“I’m pretty positive about coming back in even though it will be different,” he told the Guardian.

“I haven’t really stopped – I had a week on holiday in Majorca but other than that, I’ve been carrying on doing what I can.

“I know I’ve got a long time before I can think about being back, but it means I can just focus on myself. I’ll be cracking on in the gym.

“If you come into the first team young like I did, you sometimes don’t get that time to work on some personal development so you’ve got to take the positives out of it.

“I can use the time to focus on myself and come back better.”

Wrench, who turned 21 in October, had just touched down for his second try in the crucial victory over the French side and his seventh for the season overall when he was withdrawn from the field for what would be the last time in 2022.

Connor Wrench leaves the field after suffering his injury against Toulouse (Image: Mike Boden)

However, the England Knights international had actually suffered the injury much earlier in the game but was able to play on.

When the injury was ultimately detected, surgery and a mentally draining initial period of recovery followed which saw him completely off his feet for more than a month.

“I think I played on for 20 minutes after I actually did it, and scored as well,” he said.

“They did the ACL test on the field – Nick (Murphy, club physio) asked me to get up and do a little run.

“Most people know straight away with something like that and just come off but I thought I must be okay as I could run.

“I carried on, did a little step and I just felt it go underneath me. I knew something was badly wrong then.”

On his rehab, he said: “It’s not going too bad – I’m 10 weeks in now. I ended up having a little bit more done than what I expected, so I was off my feet for six weeks.

“I’ve really picked things up in the past four weeks or so and I’m happy with where I’m at.

“Those six weeks off my feet were just the worst. I was bed-bound for the first two of them, on all sorts of pills and just completely out of it.

“It’s nice to be mobile and gradually building myself up again.”