'Brutal': Zander Fagerson lifts lid on missing British & Irish Lions tour

Zander Fagerson hopes he has banished the darkest period of his rugby career after making his first appearance since April in Scotland’s final Autumn Test against Tonga on Sunday.

The prop endured a “mental roller-coaster” over the summer after he was ruled out of the British and Irish Lions tour of Australia following three separate calf tears.

Fagerson was named in the initial Lions squad in May but then withdrew in June, although there was still a plan in place for him to go on Scotland’s summer tour of the South Pacific with a view to joining Andy Farrell’s squad in Australia later in the summer if all went to plan.

“I had that first calf tear and then I was coming back from that and I got back to running and it was going well, and then the same calf, I had another tear of a different muscle because of a bunch of other things that we didn’t pick up,” he said when asked how close he was to being fit for Lions involvement. “That was brutal.

“I then got back to a point where that calf was grand, but because I’d been compensating so much on my left side, the right calf flared up as well.

“So then there was a point where I was going to go out with the national team and then I was going to possibly get called out (by the Lions) afterwards. But when push came to shove, there was no decision made.

“I had such a mental roller-coaster that summer, I just said, you know what? I just want to have a break and get on with it.

“I went on holiday in Asia, close to Australia, and I sort of put the Lions tour to the back of my head, but then actually when the first Test came around, it really hit me, so that was pretty dark.

“But I had an amazing time with the family, did some incredible stuff with them and that’s memories I’ll have for a lifetime.”

When he eventually recovered from his calf issues, Fagerson then suffered a knee injury in pre-season that caused him to miss the start of the campaign with Glasgow and the Scots’ opening three November Tests.

“The knee was the worst one,” he said. “I came back fully fit and ready to go. I was buzzing to get back. I was in the gym, just doing squats and I built up to a weight I’d been doing all summer. I came off the rack and it just didn’t feel right. I couldn’t really walk on it and then got a scan. Not ideal.”

Fagerson said it has “100 per cent” been the worst period of his career.

“The hope of getting picked for the Lions and then going down for the media day and seeing all the boys, you get the buzz and you’re still part of it, which is awesome,” said Fagerson.

“And then to have that ripped away from me, not once but twice again, was brutal. I don’t think I realised how much it ate away at me until when I came back with the knee injury, the missus was like ‘we need to have a chat, you’ve been pretty dark for a while’.

“I’d had my break with the kids, I was refreshed, ready to start the season with Glasgow, and then that got taken away from me as well.”