To say 2014 has been an eventful year for Chris Henry would be something of an understatement. Over the course of the past 12 months he has experienced the highs of lifting the Six Nations trophy with Ireland in Paris, reaching play-off stages in both the Heineken Cup and the PRO12 and he continues to be a stand out stalwart of Ulster Rugby. But this season Henry also experienced the lows; following an episode which required heart surgery his immediate fear was that he would never play rugby again.
“It has been an eventful year,” explains Chris. “Lots of highs and one big low; looking back to that Championship with Ireland, it was incredible to be involved, I never thought that I would be involved so much so to play a lot of minutes and to win it, was really incredible. That was definitely the highlight of the year for me.
“Then unfortunately the last month or so has thrown a spanner in the works. When you are in this environment you think – I am a big strong boy, nothing like that could ever happen to me. It just shows that we are all human and things like that can happen at any time.”
For Chris, the start of this New Year is about getting back and improving his health and being better and stronger than ever before…
“Whenever that happened, your mind plays tricks on you and you begin to think the worst. At one stage there was a chance that I might have to stop playing rugby all together. My perspective is that I will never take it for granted, but that first game back playing is going to be an amazing feeling. I now really enjoy the small things about being in this environment. I was out for two weeks completely and I am just so happy that I can come in now and sit on a bike or sit in a meeting because I really missed being around the team. We are very fortunate to do what we do and are lucky to do a job that we love.
“First things first, I am convinced that I will be back before the end of this season. Obviously the European Cup hasn't gone the way we would have liked it to this year. We demand a lot from each other and we want to compete on all fronts. The league is something that we have been close to in recent years and if I can come back in any way before the end of the season to contribute something towards the team and our goal for silverware that would be great.
“Having experienced success in the Six Nations last season I feel that something is building with Ireland. We have one of the best coaches in the world leading us, we have strength and depth that maybe in previous seasons we didn’t have and I want to contribute to a World Cup campaign as much as possible.”
2015 will be another busy year with the Six Nations, Rugby World Cup, Europe and the PRO12 competitions to look forward to. We wish Chris a speedy recovery and look forward to his return to rugby.