George Furbank has put his faith in sardines as he looks to keep his dream of playing in the Rugby World Cup alive after a year from hell with injury problems.
The Northampton Saints and England full-back won the last of his 14 caps in the win over Japan last November and has had a difficult year, breaking his arm and then struggling to recover from a long-term calf injury.
But like the rest of the rugby world, Furbank, 29, was glued to RugbyPassTV for the draw of the 2027 tournament that is on his bucket list of things to play in before he calls time.
England have drawn Wales, Tonga and Zimbabwe in Pool F, which could lead to him facing Saints team-mate and Sables prop, Cleopas Kundiona, on the game’s biggest stage.
“Interestingly, everyone has been saying “no pool of death this time,” which is interesting. Obviously, it’s an exciting group. Wales, who are building again, Tonga and Zimbabwe,” Furbank said.
“Hopefully, Cleopas Kundiona gets into the Zimbabwe squad, and if I can, I get into the England squad. It will be nice to see a familiar face. I have a big goal of wanting to go to the World Cup.
“I would love to experience that in my career, and this is the one I’ve got to target. In the background, it’s not something I think about day-to-day, but it’s a major goal.
“Trying to regain fitness and putting a run together is the main priority at the moment, and seeing where we are at, and putting some form together before the Six Nations,” he said.
Furbank, who has played in the Saints’ last three games, getting a full 80 minutes under his belt in last weekend’s defeat at Bristol Bears, admits he was getting frustrated at the setbacks.
“There were a couple of times when I got back into doing training bits, running on the side, or just random bits before training, and I’d feel a little twinge, and it would go again,” he said.
“The time it happened before the summer tour was pretty disappointing because I was pretty desperate to go on that tour to Argentina, and ultimately tried to push that, and it happened again. That was pretty frustrating.”
Furbank says that among the appointments with doctors and specialists, he was sent to see a nutritionist to see if his diet was playing a part in his breakdown.
“We had to consider the nutritional side of things, and someone there did some testing and stuff to make sure I had what I needed in my diet to put me in a good spot with my body.
“I was given a few more supplements and more oily fish. Those were the big changes. I don’t mind the oily fish. The missus is probably complaining about adding sardines to a few things, but hopefully it gets me to the World Cup.”