Exclusive interview: Rees was forced to retire at the age of 27 and is now a doctor working in the battle against Covid-19
Dr Tom Rees was recently reflecting on his former life as an international rugby player when a startling realisation dawned on him.
“I am almost getting to the point, nine-and-a-bit years since I confirmed my retirement, where I will have been retired for longer than I played," acknowledges the former flanker. "I am not even yesterday’s fish and chips wrapper. It is quite a while ago now.”
Rees only won 15 caps for England but that spell was enough to leave the masses wishing he had played five times that number of Tests for his country.
When he retired at the age of 27 after a wretched spell with injuries, Stuart Lancaster, then England’s interim head coach, paid tribute by saying: “It's going to be a shame that he will never be able to display his talent on the world stage again.” Dai Young, his director of rugby at Wasps, knew that whatever Rees tackled next, the “very resilient and intelligent man” would be successful.
Today, Rees is a doctor currently working in A&E at Basingstoke’s North Hampshire hospital, on the cusp of finishing his medical training. As part of his second foundation year, Rees was meant to rotate out of A&E into general practice, the area he plans to practice in eventually, before coronavirus put those plans on hold.
Pandemics, he points out, were not exactly part of his training. “They are almost taught as if it is medical history.” Now Rees finds himself waiting to help as best he can in the A&E department, and is quick in paying tribute to the public for avoiding any unnecessary trips to hospital given the amount of work being done to save lives.
“My experience will be very different to someone on a general ward, to someone who will be intensive care. From my perspective in A&E, there has been a lot of planning to prepare for a massive influx that, in the case of Basingstoke, never felt like it really came,” he explains to Telegraph Sport.
“There was a period where everyone you saw came in with similar symptoms and you were confident of the diagnosis. The last week or so, it seems to have tapered down. A&E has tried to divide into two for people who are suspected of having Covid-19 and those who aren’t to limit the risk of spread. So you might sit there for the first few hours of the day without a patient to see.
“I think that is testament in part to how seriously the public are taking it, following the advice in terms of lockdown and social distancing. But also there is a lot less of, for lack of a better term, the nonsense and frustration of people who can’t see GPs turning up to an A&E department when it is not appropriate. People have been really good in terms of what they are using the department for.”
It is a testament to the impact Rees made as a player that he is still being recognised on the hospital wards. In a recent Wasps’ supporters poll choosing the club’s greatest all-time XV, Rees came out on top in the race for the number seven shirt, with 47 per cent of the vote ahead of Paul Volley, Dean Ryan and Buster White.
A Heineken Cup and Premiership winner with Wasps in the 2000s, he seemed destined to become England captain. Then the injuries set in. He underwent three shoulder surgeries that kept him out for 11 months, before a knee injury ultimately signalled the end. For Rees, looking back on what he achieved is a conflicting experience. The retirement of his old team-mate James Haskell last summer felt poignant.
“When Hask retired, that was quite a sad moment for me. It almost marked the end of my generation,” Rees explains. “I feel mixed, from a sense that I did not achieve the things I wanted to. I envisaged having this long, glittering career, winning 50 caps for England, multiple World Cups and Lions tours.
“I didn’t get to do that, but I am very grateful for what I did get to do and very proud. There are plenty who don’t get the opportunity to do the things I did. Now I'm 35, I no longer feel as though I am missing in action, if that makes sense - it is getting slightly easier to reflect on it.
“In future I might think I got to do the best of both. Rugby has not left me too physically ruined, and if I was facing the prospect of at least five years of university [to study medicine] starting at age 35, I am not sure if I would be able to do it.
“I sometimes watch the sport and think that even if I hadn’t got injured, I am not entirely sure I would be able to cut it with how much it has changed, how much the physicality and the pace has increased. It keeps moving forward.”
Many would beg to differ. Retiring might have been cruel but it gave Rees the opportunity to pursue a career he thought had passed him by. The son of two doctors, it was the success of Wales centre Jamie Roberts in balancing professional rugby with his medical studies that showed Rees he could follow a similar path.
“While you are playing, you meet lots of people with all sorts of different jobs and the people I kept gravitating back to were all the medics and physios patching us up. Having initially thought it was too late and I had missed the boat [to do medicine], I thought I would give it a go. By the time the axe fell at the age of 27 I had already applied and was looking for a place at university.”
For all the obstacles he faced as a player, the current pandemic is a challenge from an entirely different realm. One that Rees is happily confronting without any desire for adulation.
“I don’t want to sound like a martyr - I am doing my job,” he states. “While pandemics might not be at the forefront of your mind, soldiers don’t complain when war breaks out, medics don’t complain when people are sick. It’s what you sign up for.”
Topic: Tom Rees interview in The Telegraph...... (Read 1074 times)
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