If it doesn’t break you, it can make you. While it may be stretching things to say that Caelan Doris is a changed man after his injury-enforced six-month absence, by the same token he’s certainly not quite the same.
Of course, the contrast was always going to be stark. Speaking in the same Aviva Stadium press conference room for the first time since he sat dejected and solemn after Leinster’s Champions Cup semi-final defeat to Northampton on May 3rd, Doris cut a happier figure back in his role as Ireland captain for Saturday’s game against Japan. Even so, he was exuding an almost zen-like calmness.
His grim mood on that grim day back in May would only have been worsened by the knowledge that he had injured his shoulder and would soon have his worst fears realised.
“It was rotator cuff (injury), so it wasn’t a dislocation. Just the position I caught myself in, instead of it popping out of the socket the rotator cuffs at the back went.”
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The injury scuppered his participation in a first British & Irish Lions tour, most likely as captain, but rather than wallow in his misfortune, Doris quickly resolved to maximise his time away from the game, focusing on improving both his mental and physical wellbeing. To that end, he undertook a weeklong digital detox retreat, beyond his native Lacken, Co Mayo.
“I was home quite a bit but this was actually in northern California, so a little bit away from home, the other west coast,” said Doris of his stint staying with his brother Rian in Los Angeles.
“I was with him for a week and then he pointed me in the direction of this, it’s called the Hoffman Process, the name of the retreat. He’d done it a few years prior and it was something that he actually gifted to me about three years ago but I hadn’t had an opportunity to do it. The gift had expired, so I ended up paying myself. He pointed me in the right direction.
“It was Friday to Friday, seven days,” Doris explained, admitting that after a day to get accustomed to being without electric devices, he loved the process.
But his holidays didn’t end there.
“I met up with some borders from school, and went to Biarritz and San Sebastián with them for a long weekend. I spent quite a bit of time in Mayo. Found myself a new woman, which is nice as well!” he revealed, smiling.
Using the enforced break to work with the IRFU’s specialist rehabilitation physiotherapist Emma Gallivan, spending a bit of time focusing on his hips – which he said “had been at me for quite a while” – Doris is returning physically and mentally stronger and refreshed.
It stems from a renewed focus, “seeing the positives in any situation,” he said. “In Leinster, we all have maxims, and the one that I said probably 18 months ago now was: Marcus Aurelius says, ‘The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.’
“It kind of made me live that, really. By processing it, feeling the upset and then turning the page quite quickly and seeing what good could come from it. I feel I did that pretty well.”
