well and then my knee started
making a clunking sensation,
which was very painful.”
The routine repeated itself,
back to the hospital for more
scans for the 12-times capped
prop, but this time nothing
untoward was uncovered, so
Welsh - sore knee and all -
returned to the training pitch.
“I went out to play against for
Bath, lasted about 30 minutes,
I was trying to see the half out
and thankfully the physio told
me to get off.”
Another trip to hospital, and
a tear of the meniscus was
discovered. Welsh, though,
points out why this would not
have been picked up in the
first scan: “They scan your leg
straight, so the meniscus only
becomes visible when you
bend you leg.”
Welsh went under the knife, but
soon faced a second problem
as the calf injury he thought
he’d shaken off reared its head
once more.
“At that point my head was
spinning,” reflected the
Scotland prop on his disastrous
luck. “I'm pretty good with these
things usually and I’m pretty
thick-skinned. I went down to
the doctor and he said to me
‘Jon you’ve developed another
DVT’.
“Before the operation, they put
me on blood thinners again
because of my history with
the last one and basically as
soon as I came off those blood
thinners my calf blew up.
“I stayed on the blood thinners
for longer when I got the
meniscus operation, this time
it was for six months and I got
told that I'd have to get a blood
test done after the six months
to see whether I'd have to go
on lifelong treatment and retire
from rugby.”
For Welsh, a usually
light-hearted character, being
confronted with the prospect
of retirement was difficult to
process. “My way of life was at
risk,” he told SCRUM.
A contract had been verbally
agreed to keep him at
Newcastle, and the club’s
Director of Rugby Dean
Richards told Welsh that would
be honoured regardless of his
injury situation, but the worries
didn’t end there.
Welsh continued: “I still hadto get the blood test to see
whether I had to retire or not.
About 10 weeks into post-op
from the meniscus, I got a
stabbing pain in my knee from
just walking along the street,
it lasted only for about three
seconds.
“I went back to the physios. I
hadn’t even started rehab yet,
but I had a full rupture, the
stitches from my meniscus op
had burst. I had to go back for
another op.
“Because I hadn’t even
started the rehab yet, the only
explanation I had was jolting in
my sleep one night, so while I'm
on blood thinners and battling
my second bout of DVT and
thinking I’m going to have to
retire, I couldn't get away from
it all.”
Welsh, whose most recent
Test appearance came against
Wales in the 2018 Six Nations,
is now back in training and
thanked the medical staff at
Newcastle for their help in
ensuring he can continue
playing the game he loves.
“I am very grateful for the way
Newcastle treated me and
handled things. They were sogood to me. Obviously, we got
relegated this year and a few
boys activated their release
clause but that didn't really
cross my mind at all. Because I
felt part of the club in the way
that they've supported me in
one of the worst years of my
career.
“I want to stay with the team
and help them win promotion
back to where they belong.”
And while Welsh, a Guinness
PRO12 winner with Glasgow
in 2015, admits watching
Newcastle’s relegation was
“tough”, he’s confident they can
bounce back at the first time of
asking.
And looking ahead to the
Rugby World Cup, the 32-year-
old, who was at the centre
of the penalty decision that
saw Scotland eliminated by
Australia in heartbreaking
fashion four years ago, insists
he’ll be cheering Gregor
Townsend’s squad on this
autumn.
“I have a lot of friends who play
for Scotland, so that makes
it more personal. I’ll be really
animated when I watch it. I have
a bit of an interest in EnglandWelsh (middle) with Finn Russell and John Barclay
during Scotland training in the 2018 Six Nations68 • WWW.SCRUMMAGAZINE.COM • ISSUE 116 2019
RUGBY WORLD CUP - SCOTLAND PREVIEW