Josh Adams eager for Wales return after injury-hit year

Simon Thomas

For Josh Adams, the desire to pull on the red jersey of Wales is now greater than ever after missing the summer tour of Australia.

The 59-cap Cardiff winger opted to sit out the trip Down Under following a frustrating season where he had been plagued by a series of fitness issues.

His start to the domestic campaign was delayed by a shoulder ligament injury sustained at the World Cup and then came the persistent problems with swollen knees.

He was having to have both knees drained of blood before games and he admits the condition left him some way short of 100 per cent. That was then followed by an issue with his groin, which was ultimately diagnosed as a hernia.

As he says, it’s “a long list” and it all added up to the right decision being to withdraw from consideration for the Australian trip.

But now, after seeing a specialist in London, he is on the road to recovery and confident of being fit for the start of the new season in September.

Renewed appetite

Speaking during a Cardiff Rugby event at the Royal Welsh Show, the 29-year-old confirmed his renewed appetite to get back out on the field and represent his country once more.

“I have been lucky enough to be selected for multiple campaigns on the bounce,” he said.

“When you take a step back and look from the outside, I think it gives you an appreciation of being in there.

“When you are in there all the time, it can be easy to take it for granted.

“When you come out of it and you see boys go out there and play, it gives you an appreciation of what it means to play up there and be involved.

“That was a big thing for me. I didn’t realise I was going to take that from it. I didn’t realise that was going to hit me, but it did.

“It’s giving me an even greater appetite to pull on the jersey.

“So I am looking forward to being healthy again and playing again.”

Injuries

Healthy certainly wasn’t the word to describe Adams during the 2023-24 season, as you can glean when he lists his catalogue of fitness issues.

“I came back from the World Cup in France and I had a shoulder injury,” he explains.

“I tore some ligaments off the AC joint, so that delayed my start with Cardiff by about six to seven weeks.

“Then, when I got two or three games under my belt and got back into rhythm, I had these pretty strange knee injuries.

“I had taken a bang on the surface at the Arms Park and my knees couldn’t quite recover.

“They kept filling up with blood. It’s quite rare to have that with both of them. I’d had nothing like that ever before.

“It was a difficult one to get to the bottom of. It wasn’t an injury as such because it was something I could manage and sort of get through.

“But, to be brutally honest, I wasn’t 100 per cent. My knees were limiting me in terms of time on the field in training in the week. The mobility in my knees wasn’t very good and it was just a constant battle really to try and keep the swelling down.

“I sort of managed to come out of that towards the back end of the Six Nations, but then I had a problem with an inflammation in my pubic bone and a small tear in my right adductor.

“I travelled up to London to see a professor and we discovered I had a hernia. That was just a load issue where I had probably been pushing it and doing too much, which caused the injury.

“So I have been through the mill a bit this year!

“It was pretty frustrating. I have been quite lucky throughout my rugby career where I haven’t had to deal with back-to-back-to-back injuries.
“If I have had an injury, I have always been able to come back fit and get a run of games together.

“The frustrating part for me this time was coming back, getting one or two games under my belt and then something else creeps up.

“Mentally, that was the hardest thing for me, trying to get to grips with these injuries just keeping on coming and coming and coming.

“You question yourself. Am I doing everything I should be doing, do I need to change anything?

“But you quickly realise with the amount of time I have been playing, with little breaks in between here and there, your body is going to tell you to stop at some point and this was the point where it was telling me you need some time out to sort yourself out.”

Australia 

So, the former Scarlets and Worcester wing made the tough, but necessary decision not to go on the three-match Wales tour of Australia.

“You have thoughts of prolonging yourself later down the line and what would happen if I pushed through this now.

“I didn’t want to be back to square one starting the season for Cardiff. I wanted to be fair to them because they are excellent to me. I want to make sure I am in the right frame of mind and my body is healthy to start the season for them.

“So there was a little bit of discussion between myself and Cardiff, while the Wales staff were excellent. They were on board and said if there’s a time to have a break and get myself right it was now – after what was a long year with the World Cup prep, where we started at the end of May.

“It was hard to miss out on the tour, but I am so glad I made that decision. I feel so much better for it.

“I have had some treatment, I have come back into pre-season and I am feeling really good. Touch wood, that can continue. I am doing all right at the minute.

“I would be disappointed if I wasn’t fit and ready to play Zebre at home in the first game of the URC.”

New faces

Adams has been joined by a number of new faces at Cardiff with scrum-half Aled Davies (Saracens), fly-half Callum Sheedy and flanker Dan Thomas (both Bristol), prop Ed Byrne (Leinster), centre Rory Jennings and wing Iwan Stephens (both Newcastle) among the signings.

The arrival of fellow Welsh international Davies has provided him with a new car-share partner, as they live just a few minutes away from each other in Llanelli.

Commenting on the recruitment drive, Adams said: “I think Jockey (coach Matt Sherratt) has done a good job in putting together the squad.

“Obviously, budget constraints have been difficult, but the players we have recruited have been really smart signings.

“We have added players who are going to add to the Cardiff way, the Cardiff system, the attacking, positive rugby that we like to try and play. So I am excited.”

Then, on the international front, there are the autumn Tests and the Six Nations, with a Lions tour of Australia coming up next summer, which could yet provide Adams with the opportunity to make up for missing this year’s trip Down Under.

As he rightly says to conclude our conversation: “There’s a lot to play for in the coming season.”