WHEN I was underneath all 20 stones of Ospreys prop Ma’afu Fia I didn’t know that I had suffered an injury that will rule me out for three months – I was more concerned that a try had been given.

Getting injured is sadly part and parcel of rugby when you put your body on the line.

Initially I just suffered a shock to the system at the Liberty Stadium that a try had been awarded – I was bemused to get up to see a conversion being added after the grounding had been given rather than the TMO being consulted.

Perhaps it was that surprise that stopped me feeling the pain of my injury but soon the adrenalin wore off and I needed to go down and get treatment before the restart.

I went straight to get it checked out and the medics realised that the tendon was off the bone on my right pectoral muscle.

I’ve had my op, everything seems to have gone well and, after having a short spell of disbelief and despair, I remain positive.

Sam Beard had the same injury in the second round of the season at Edinburgh and is closing in on a return, so that gives me reason for optimism.

It’s fair to say that it’s not been the best of the seasons for me after a summer Achilles injury.

When it rains, it pours and it’s frustrating to have suffered another blow in my first Dragons game of the season.

I was only supposed to play around 50 minutes but James Thomas suffered a knee injury early on (he’s also had surgery) and that plan went out of the window.

I can vouch for the stats that Adam Hughes put in his column last week. With the ball in play time being 48 minutes – higher than most international matches – it was a lovely welcome back!

One of the games I always remember is a game against the Ospreys at Judgement Day, my first game at Principality Stadium, when they came flying at us in the opening 10 minutes. It was similar in Swansea and in truth most derbies are now pretty brutal.

But I felt fine and that’s credit to our head of strength and conditioning Ryan Harris for the mini pre-season that he put me through.

It was perfect and that just makes it all the more frustrating to be going back to the long term injury group now.

Twelve weeks doesn’t sound a lot but that’s 12 games missed. It’s all the more frustrating because of the back row injury crisis that I’ve talked about on many occasions already this season.

But it’s not the end of the world – I have become more philosophical as the years have gone by.

It’s just infuriating that I can’t contribute or be involved like I want to. I’ll still be part of the process with reviews and feedback but it’s tougher from the sidelines.

I’ll play my part by trying to offer some advice to the youngsters and after helping them along hopefully I will benefit from the extra lower body pre-season over the New Year.

I can’t dwell on things and having a positive mindset is essential on the comeback trail, that’s why I’ve always seen the importance of doing things outside of rugby, whether education or business interests.

There is a danger of getting drunk on rugby so it’s good to switch off and do other things.

Injury is something that you have to get used to dealing with as a professional player and there are plenty of us at the Dragons having to cope with the frustration at the moment.

The westies had their cursed carshare at the start of the season with Nic Cudd, Dan Suter and Tavis Knoyle all going down.

Now me and Rhys Buckley have our own wounded vehicle in the east but hopefully it won’t be long until we’re back on the road to recovery.