How Watson came back stronger than ever

England star is ready to ‘pounce like a jungle cat’ after fighting his way back from two Achilles injuries

England's wing Anthony Watson scores a try during the Six Nations international rugby union match between England and France at Twickenham

Daniel Schofield

March 18 2021 02:30 AM

When Anthony Watson was 14, he asked his father, Duncan, for an iPhone, a request that was flatly refused. At this point most teenagers would slam their bedroom door and bemoan the cosmic injustice of the universe.

Watson, however, plotted a different path. He started importing sporting clothes from China and selling them to his friends. Within six months, he was able to proudly walk into the kitchen with a gleaming new iPhone in hand.

“It belittled me, but at the same time you had to be proud of his resourcefulness,” Duncan says now. “He has always been very single-minded, very motivated.”

That commercial instinct remains today. Watson is now investing in himself as the business. If his performance is the product, then there is a team behind it, from his immediate family and support network at Bath, to his mental skills coach, Don Macpherson, and sprint coach Jonas Dodoo. Their association with Watson goes back several years.

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“I saw him develop from someone who was arrogant of his skill set, who did not know how good he could be, to someone who treats himself like a business and invests a lot of his income back into own therapy, his health, his team to support him,” Dodoo says. “That’s the mark of an elite athlete.”

Right now, his share price has never been higher. A man-of-the-match performance against France further established his credentials to retain his place in the Lions back three. Yet his stock has not always followed a linear trajectory. It was three years to the day yesterday that Watson tore his Achilles tendon in a Six Nations match against Ireland. Later that year, he tore the same tendon, meaning he would spend 13 months on the sidelines.

Achilles injuries are the stuff of nightmares for players built for high speed and agility such as Watson. One study in the NFL showed a third of players never played again after tearing their Achilles tendon, as they cannot regain their explosive pace. This was the fear looming in Watson’s mind, particularly with the World Cup around the corner.

As soon as the scan results came in, Watson called Macpherson. He says: “I remember his words. He says, ‘We have worked on the tools, I know what the tools are, if I need any help I will get back to you’.”

“I monitored from a distance because I knew Team Anthony was pretty good. I would say Alyse, his partner, was the main mind coach. She was fantastic. Credit to Anthony’s dad Duncan too. He is no slouch when it comes to mind coaching.”

If Alyse offered the shoulder to cry on, then Duncan provides the kick up the backside. “I remember the first time he called after the injury and he was down,” Duncan says. “Typical father, I told him to accept it and work towards getting back.” His mother, Vivian, and brothers, Marcus and Callum, also played an important role.

Recovering from one Achilles tear is one thing. Coming back from a second is another. This is where Macpherson started working more closely with Watson again. “He would have heard his own monkey mind chattering away,” says Macpherson, author of the book How to Master Your Monkey Mind. “Especially when the Achilles went a second time, he would have heard, ‘Is this ever going to be right? Will I have lost a yard of speed? Will I still be able to turn on it?’.”

Their work focused on rebuilding the trust between brain and body. Then Macpherson provided Watson with a voice file called Turn the Lights Up. “If you have not played for a while, the brain cells responsible for the silky skills fade,” Macpherson says. “It is like a dimmer switch. They are still there, but the lights do down. Through a lot of work, he got hold of the dimmer switch and turned it back it up.”

Meanwhile Dodoo, through his Speedworks Training, started working on Watson’s running technique. “With a race car like Anthony, his dashboard has to all be green,” Dodoo said. “Once he has a red, he has to know how to sort them himself. We worked on key technical things on how he attacks the ground with his foot and how he creates pretension in his body.”

By the time the World Cup came around, Watson was in “the shape of his life” according to Dodoo, while Stuart Hooper, Bath’s director of rugby, confirmed he was running at the same speed as before his injury. Watson was not satisfied with just returning to where he was and has continued to work with Dodoo, through an app called Binary Sports.

The next voice file he received from Macpherson was called Lights Brighter Than Ever. “That was his way of saying I am back, but I need more,” Macpherson said. Together they worked on developing what they called “Senna Brain”.

“Ayrton Senna said his brain was two-tenths of a second ahead of his body,” Macpherson said. “Anthony said I want to be two-tenths of a second ahead of the play so I am ready to pounce like a jungle cat.”