Playing for the British & Irish Lions is the pinnacle, an experience for which every player would want to be at their physical peak.
The reality is that a Lions tour comes at the end of a gruelling season, and, at times, players have no choice but to ignore their own discomfort.
In Australia last summer Ollie Chessum could not walk without being unsettled by the pain from a deteriorating foot injury. His plantar fascia — a thick band of tissue that runs the length of the foot, supporting the arch — was close to rupturing.
“From step to step and day to day, just constant pain, I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy,” he says. “Whether I was just walking to the bathroom or running in a game, I could feel it every step.”
Somehow, he succeeded in coping with the pain that was shooting through one of his size-15 feet, to the extent that he won selection for all three Lions Tests against the Wallabies, coming off the bench twice and starting the series-clinching second Test in Melbourne.
“It had been going on a while, so I think it just got to the point where I learnt to ignore it,” he says. “It just became sort of normal. But it was painful and I was probably only at about 80 per cent of what I could be.
“Training with the Lions was quite light to start with, but the last few weeks went up in intensity and it was fairly bad come the second and third Tests.”
How much of a challenge, both mental and physical, was it to be approaching a career landmark in a diminished condition? “Frustrating,” he said. “I always felt I was going to be able to play through it. But there’s only so long you can have modified practice and missing out certain elements of training before that slowly starts to affect the way you’re playing. So I was certainly glad to get through it.”
After months of attempting to manage the injury, the plantar fascia finally ruptured during England’s win against Fiji at Twickenham in November. Chessum, as a result, missed the victories over New Zealand and Argentina, and spent six weeks out before returning to action for Leicester Tigers in December.
“There was almost a feeling of relief when my foot finally went,” he said. “You never want to miss games, but I’ve come back now in a better place than before. The body feels good and I feel fresh, which is nice going into the Six Nations.”
Against Wales on Saturday, Chessum, 25, had expected to start at lock alongside Maro Itoje. It would have been the 18th time they had done so, and Chessum has already become Itoje’s most regular second-row partner, having surpassed the 15 Test starts the England captain shared with George Kruis in the final match of the Six Nations last year (also against Wales).
Chessum, top left, helped the Lions to a series win down under… and Itoje, third left, shows him how to celebrate
INPHO/DAN SHERIDAN
The duo also started together for the Lions on that memorable night in Melbourne. But with Itoje beginning on the bench against Wales, as part of his reintegration into the squad after taking time off to attend his mother’s funeral, the pair will be separated, at least temporarily.
“I feel like we complement each other really well,” Chessum said. “Maz has a game that is built around that nuisance. He’s a real nuisance at the breakdown, which is something my skill set doesn’t lean towards. But then I feel like I do the running side — I’ve played a lot of No6. So we fill the holes that each other have in our games really, that’s the way I see it.
“Of my 30 caps, probably 25 or 26 have been playing alongside Maro. So that partnership’s 25-plus games deep and we’ve really got to understand each other.
“There’s always new faces, but there’s a real consistency around the squad now, which obviously helps in terms of building partnerships. Coming back into camp at the start of a tournament, it means you can probably hit the ground running that little bit quicker.”
The stability provided by Itoje and Chessum’s partnership has benefited the whole team. But in Alex Coles, Chessum will hardly be packing down beside a stranger.
Coles, 26, is in rich form for Northampton Saints and enjoyed an impressive autumn for England, starting alongside Chessum against Fiji, then with Itoje against the All Blacks and Argentina.
Chessum was one of the tryscorers in Leicester’s 57-14 thrashing of Bayonne last month
INPHO/TOM MAHER
Now that he has become such a part of the furniture in England’s pack, it is easy to forget that Chessum was one of the game’s late developers. After playing football and cricket in his younger days — he was, unsurprisingly given his frame, a handy centre back and a nippy fast bowler — he picked up rugby at his Lincolnshire state school, Carre’s Grammar in Sleaford, and then at Kesteven RFC.
He did not make it into Leicester’s academy at 16, but the Tigers, the club he had supported as a boy, kept an eye on him and he came of age playing the 2019-20 season in the RFU Championship for Nottingham, aged 19.
Leicester picked him up the following season, he finally filled out into his 6ft 7in frame and became part of Steve Borthwick’s rebuilding operation at Welford Road. That process quickly gathered pace in Chessum’s second season and the Tigers won the Premiership title, propelling Borthwick towards the England job and Chessum towards international rugby. Less than two years after playing his first Premiership match, he came off the bench for his England debut against Italy in Rome.
This season he became captain of Leicester, a proud moment for a player who had watched with his family from behind the posts in the West Stand at Welford Road.
Chessum takes some stopping, much to the annoyance of Scotland
DAN MULLAN/RFU/GETTY IMAGES
“My mum and my little brother still sit in the same seats, just under the big screen,” he says. Two of the contingent do not need to pay for tickets any more, as Lewis, 22, is also in the Leicester squad.
Dylan, at 18 the youngest of the three brothers, is a member of the Tigers’ academy. Any scouts watching youth rugby in Lincolnshire would have noted the Chessum parents — Paddy is 6ft 5in, Michelle 6ft 2in — and reckoned they were on to something.
Lewis is another red-headed lock who, at 6ft 9in, stands two inches taller than his club captain. He captained England Under-20 and recently spent a loan spell with Mitsubishi Sagamihara Dynaboars in Japan. He is injured at present, but when he returns there are hopes of seeing the Chessum brothers packing down in the Tigers’ second row.
Chessum was appointed Leicester captain this season… and will be a crucial cog for England in the Six Nations
MICHAEL POWELL FOR THE TIMES
“Me and Lewis have been here four years and we’re still yet to play a game together,” Ollie says. “I’m hoping and praying that whenever he’s back fully fit, we’ll get an opportunity to do that.”
Dylan, meanwhile, can play at lock and at No6. “He’s 6ft 3in or 6ft 4in, but he might still be growing, I don’t think I stopped until I was 20 or 21,” Ollie says. “Maybe he could play No6 at some point with me and Lewis. That would be pretty cool, wouldn’t it? Three redheads in the back five.”
That would certainly be one way of developing chemistry in the Tigers pack. In the meantime, Chessum is focused on further developing his partnership with Itoje and enjoying his return to full fitness as part of an England team looking to extend their 11-match winning streak and win the Six Nations for the first time in six years.
“There’s probably even more of a target on our back this year, which is strange to say because everyone always wants to beat England,” he said.
“Now that we’re in good form they’ll want to beat us even more. But there’s a real desire to keep that form going and to take that next step; we really want to get our hands on a trophy we’ve not had our hands on for a long while now.”