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Why Caluori played on with detached wrist ligament
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Teenage wing sensation Noah Caluori has revealed that he spent the majority of his breakthrough season – featuring 18 tries in 13 Prem games and an England debut – playing with a detached ligament in his wrist.
The 19-year-old sustained the injury when he came down heavily on his arm while competing for a high ball in Saracens’ defeat by Exeter in December.
After consulting both club and national team coaches, Caluori opted to play through his pain and wait until the summer for an operation to reconnect the ligament.
“It would just hurt,” said Caluori. “A lot of movements hurt, I had to modify a lot of my gym plans, catching the high balls hurt.
“I learnt how to manage the pain. That’s it, really.
“I came to the conclusion that I’m going to push for this. I’m going to hope that I go on tour [with England], I’m going to try for the best season I can for Saracens, try and help us get to the play-offs.
“You just ride the adrenaline and learn to get on with it.”
Caluori posted a picture on social media in July of himself in a hospital bed with a heavily bandaged right wrist.
Explaining now why it felt right to keep playing, he said: “Saracens and England gave me the freedom. If it was too bad and I wasn’t able to play, they would have not let me.
“But they gave me the freedom to choose, I chose what I wanted to do, and then you’ve just got to live with your decision. I was pretty happy that I’ve done it.”
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While Saracens fell just short of the Prem play-offs, failing to overhaul Exeter in a final-day shoot-out for a semi-final spot, Caluori succeeded in his other aims.
He finished as the top flight’s joint-top try-scorer, made a try-scoring debut for England against Fiji, and then appeared off the bench again in victory over Argentina the following weekend.
Caluori, whose mother Grace is a psychotherapist, regularly lists and revises his goals for the future.
He is determined that his career should not fizzle out, which has happened with some other young prodigies in the past.
“I’ve had multiple chats with people, and it’s just similar things: ‘You have the ability to do it, it just matters about your mentality’,” said Caluori.
“They’ve seen loads of players who have done similar to what I’ve done, then drop off in two or three years because they got complacent.
“I don’t think I’m that type of person. I’m very hungry for everything.”
Caluori will miss Saracens’ Prem opener away to Leicester on Sunday, 27 September as he continues his recovery, but he could be in contention for their home game against Sale seven days later.
