Ulster's Will Addison says broadening horizons helped ease pain of injury absence

At 31-years-old and with three Ireland caps and a captain’s responsibility at former club Sale Sharks, Addison is one of the more experienced voices in the Ulster dressing room.

However, due to several serious injuries Addison has only been able to take the pitch 10 times for Ulster over the last four seasons, including missing the whole of the 2022/23 campaign.

To stay involved on the playing side during his long rehabilitation periods Addison took up a more analytical and mentoring role with Ulster.

Speaking ahead of Ulster’s United Rugby Championship clash against Edinburgh at Kingspan Stadium on Saturday evening, he said: “We’ve got so many young players – we’ve got a lot of young, hungry players – so they’re not shy of asking me questions and I’m really enjoying my role as one of the senior guys in the squad.

"I think I’ve been that since I came in from Sale because when I left there as club captain, came here with the young players we had, I immediately saw what potential we had from guys like James Hume, Mike Lowry, Stewart Moore... that’s five or six years ago and now we’ve got Ben Carson, Jude Postlethwaite, Nathan Doak – though he is one of the most experiences blokes around.

“I really enjoy that role of mentoring and it’s something Dan (McFarland), Sopes (Dan Soper), Newbs (Craig Newby) and Roddy (Grant) really encouraged me to do last year.

“I think they recognised that someone rehabbing from a long-term injury, you can be quite removed from the group, so to keep me engaged they made the smart decision of asking me to do bits of mentoring, speaking at meetings, presenting on different games last year and I really enjoyed that role,” he added.

“It kind of lit a little bit of a hunger in me to look into coaching as an avenue post-rugby, so I’m currently working with Inst (RBAI) school

"I’m really enjoying that role as a mentor to young guys, but number one I have to be showing I can do it on the pitch to be good mentor to them as well.”

Addison is also helping out players sidelined with long-term injuries.

“I’ve spoken to Sean Reffell a number of times and Jude Postlethwaite – a young guy who’s got a huge future but has already had to deal with a lot already – so I’ve been in his shoes, so I know it; it’s more the outside of rugby I’ve spoken to them about,” he said.

“If you’re out for a long period of time, you need to have stuff outside of rugby that’s giving you a bit of a buzz because if you’ve got the injuries I had, there weren’t a lot of good moments that give you that endorphin hit you get from playing on a Friday night, so you have to have something outside of that.

“Whether it’s cooking, training your dog, which is what I learnt to do, or a hobby – golf – you have to have something that you can see progress in outside of rugby, because if you’re rehabbing there’s not a whole lot of progress quickly.

"So it’s just something you need to have and then just making sure you’ve got a network of people around who are solid and giving you good advice, and making sure you are enjoying yourself and then slowly but surely you’ll come out of it and start to see the fruits of your labour in the gym.”