Nathan Decron

Nathan Decron injured his back in training in January 2022. The disc hernia compressed a nerve, and the nerve ran to his left calf. He could not push off. His foot dropped after a short run. The tests measured a 70 per cent deficit, down to 50 per cent after six months, and it has never fully resolved.

Centre at Pau, 1.84m and 96kg, and 28 years old.

He was out for eleven months and came back in a Challenge Cup match against the Dragons in December 2022. He now compensates for what is left of the deficit with muscle, and has started in a first-choice midfield alongside Émilien Gailleton.

Nérac gave him the game in 2007 and Agen took him into their academy at fifteen. A move to Bordeaux-Bègles in 2017 produced six appearances in two years, the second of which he lost to a knee injury and a long rehabilitation.

He went back to Agen, was made captain against Brive in December 2020, and lived through a season in which the club did not win a single league match.

France picked him for the under-18 side in 2015 and he scored twice in a 57-0 European final win over Georgia while playing above his age group. He went to the 2017 junior world championship and was a France training partner in January 2021.

The recovery is the part worth understanding. A nerve deficit does not heal the way a muscle or a ligament does; what changes is how much of the work the surrounding muscle can be trained to take over. He has built a professional career on the far side of that, which very few players in his position manage.

A defensively reliable thirteen with an unusually complete Top 14 season behind him at 26, after four that were largely spent in rehabilitation.