Keenan Hoping To Clear ‘Last Hurdle’ In Return From Injury
Hugo Keenan has been back training with Leinster at their UCD base in recent weeks ©Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile
Hugo Keenan says he will be back playing ‘in the short term’, as he edges closer to making his return to the pitch after undergoing hip surgery in the aftermath of the British & Irish Lions tour last summer.
With Leinster highlighting this week that Keenan is ‘increasing his on-field training exposure’, and Ireland head coach Andy Farrell including him in his squad for the Guinness Men’s Six Nations, the full-back is hoping to be available for the Championship opener against France.
The Dubliner has not played since starting and finishing all three Lions Tests during their memorable 2-1 series win over Australia. An operation on a pre-existing hip injury was required, and the recovery period meant he has missed the first four months of this season.
Buoyed by his progress in recent weeks, and with the start of the Six Nations now just two weeks away, he said: “I’m doing well. I obviously haven’t played yet, but I’m getting there.
“I feel I’ve turned the corner in the last couple of weeks. I’ve been back out training fully with Leinster the last week or two, so starting to come good.
“When exactly I’ll be out there is not 100% certain, but it’s in the short term anyway. In the next couple of weeks, I’m hoping to be there. So yeah, it’s been a long old process, a little bit slower than I’d hoped.”
Commenting on the decision to go under the knife post-Lions tour, he added: “I got to do it on my terms, which was a good way to do it. Choosing a time to take a bit of time and get the body right for the next couple of years down the pipeline.
“Making sure I’m in good stead to have another couple of years and kick on from this point. Use it as a positive, really. It’s still a big season to come, still plenty of rugby to be played.”
Keenan’s impending comeback provides a timely boost for Ireland, as they head into the 2026 Championship without a number of back-three players – Mack Hansen, Jimmy O’Brien, Calvin Nash, Jordan Larmour, and Shayne Bolton are currently injured.
Hansen, Keenan’s fellow Lion, will almost certainly miss the rest of the season due to the foot injury that has troubled him over the last year. He recently underwent surgery, and Connacht head coach Stuart Lancaster said it will be a ‘struggle’ for him to get back by the end of the current campaign.
Despite the obvious frustration at missing out on some big recent matches for both province and country, Keenan’s positive outlook has served him well during his long hours of rehab. He knows that he has been lucky to count this as the longest injury lay-off of his career.
“Any rugby player is going to pick up little injury stints here and there. I was quite lucky in one way, at the start of my Irish career. I got a good run of it, a clean bill of health.
“I came back after that Covid period pretty well-conditioned and that stood to me over the course of the next two or three years, didn’t it?
“Now it hasn’t all been plain sailing. I remember back in 2018, I was in my third year of the Academy. I broke my finger. I was out for seven weeks.
“Then I broke my collarbone playing against Connacht, (out) for another seven or eight weeks. Then I had ankle surgery after the Sevens in Hong Kong, and then an MCL in the Olympic qualifier.
“So, sometimes it just comes in a little bit of a phase, or whatever, and when it rains, it pours. I went from my wrist injury, having broken that in that Australia game in the Autumn Series last year into this hip. There’s been a little bit but, no, I’m fortunate that my body’s been holding up pretty well.”
Keenan was brought into Ireland camp during the last week of November’s Quilter Nations Series. He acknowledged that the national coaches are always very good at keeping injured players involved, with an expectation to ‘make all the learn-ons and adapt to the changing systems’.
It will definitely aid the 29-year-old’s return to Test rugby, rather than him having to play ‘catch-up’. He is still hopeful of getting some game-time with Leinster this month, with Saturday week’s BKT United Rugby Championship clash with Edinburgh a possibility.
“I was always aiming for sort of January, and I hopefully won’t miss that target,” he said, speaking in his role an ambassador for Inishella, BWG Foods’ quality Bord Bia-approved range of fresh, high-protein, low fat Irish meats.
“Always wanted to get back for the big interpros, the Champions Cup games, so that’s been a little bit frustrating.
“But it’s important that you don’t rush these things, that you’ve spent four or five months out and you don’t ruin the good work that you’ve been putting in and the good base that you’ve gotten. So it’s the last hurdle to get over really now.”