1
{{item.n}}
Wall on injury return: 'It felt like my time to deal with something, test my resilience'
In the 17th minute of the last game for Ireland in their 2025 Six Nations campaign, the final international before the World Cup would take place in September, Dorothy Wall would innocuously plant her foot to begin running, feel an agonising pain in the back of her ankle and collapse to the ground.
Wall had had a standout competition, earning herself a nomination into the XV of the tournament and had all but cemented herself in the prospective starting line-up of the Irish squad. And yet, stretchered off the pitch she would realise the severity of her injury that would sideline her from her debut World Cup.
At only 25, and this her first major injury, Wall reflected that so far, relatively, she had experienced a considerable amount of luck throughout her career.
VIDEO
“You see so many of your friends go through horrific injuries and be incredibly unlucky, and you’re just there fine” said the lock.
“You’re like, when is it my time to get a bit of a dose of this? So it just felt like my time to deal with something, test my resilience, and see how I could come back from it.”
And it is with this determination that Wall has attacked her injury and rehabilitation, returning to top flight Premiership Women’s Rugby action six and half month’s post-surgery, including her first start for Exeter in their round six 41-10 demolition of Bristol Bears.
Wall credits her speediness in return in part to the strength and conditioning team at Exeter Chiefs including her physio Ollie: “He was really in my corner. He definitely (knew) when I needed a push. He was always there as accountability and to keep me going.”
It was incredibly interesting and refreshing to hear in the interview how with Wall- as a female athlete- the menstrual cycle was brought into account in her rehabilitation and there was acknowledgement of how performance may be affected in different phases as well as her ability to recover, and how candidly this was spoken about by both Wall herself and her team within the rehab set up.
“There was very open communication that if I was really energy lacking one day or if I was in a bad stage of my period, these were all things that were fed back to them (Chiefs) and they were really responsive. He (Ollie) was like, ‘well, we can push this testing because it would be a good time in your phase.’ So they really listened to me and they saw around the start of the World Cup, where I found it emotionally really hard, they again were very receptive.”
Wall also credits her other support systems through friends, family and her Chiefs housemates from all over the globe. ‘‘To be valued and to have such good friends here means more than anything. I live with all these amazing girls. There’s Liv McGoverne, she’s our top point scorer and just like crazy smart and incredibly skilful and then Amy Rule, Linde van de Velden, and then a few of the men’s players that live with us too- Martin Maloney, Bachuki Tchumbadze, and Corey Barr from Ulster as well.”
Although Wall was unable to play on the pitch, she by no means was uninvolved throughout the 2025 Women’s World Cup. She took the opportunity to appear as a pundit and analyst on RTÉ and BBC, using this to improve her game.
“I worked with really intelligent people who analyse the game like Bernard Jackman in Ireland and Simon Middleton, Ugo Monye, all that crowd at the BBC as well. It added to my overall perception of rugby and just watching rugby with smart people, you pick up different things. So I really enjoyed that.”
However, not all her recovery was simply smooth sailing. Wall acknowledges the difficulty in emotions around the World Cup and expressed beginning to loathe the gym.
“When you rehab, you kind of put on a different hat and your goals as an athlete become very different. You shut off your rugby side because you have to.
“I’m very competitive on the pitch and I’m quite vocal and I really missed the emotions of being able to really celebrate a win or being really angry with something that happened. I think rugby gives you the space to feel and express in a way that you can’t do in normal life.”
Since returning from injury, Wall has had two appearances off the bench in the PWR, a 26-19 win against Harlequins and a 26-26 draw against Sale.
On her goals for the rest of the season, Wall remains focused but calm.
“We have a camp for Six Nations in January which would be good just to get in amongst it again. My approach at the moment, I’m taking these four to six weeks, I’m seeing the improvement in myself and I’ll probably refine that again after six weeks and then have a good chunk of time off at Christmas.
“When you get injured you don’t get any time off so hopefully that’s something that can fill my cup and put me in a good position in a different way coming into next year.”
To be first in line for Rugby World Cup 2027 Australia tickets, register your interest here