Noah Caluori played the majority of his breakthrough Premiership campaign with a Noah Caluori wrist injury that went unannounced, the 19-year-old wing revealing he had detached a ligament and elected to defer surgery until the summer rather than cut short his season.
Caluori sustained the injury when he came down heavily on his arm competing for a high ball during Saracens’ defeat by Exeter in December. After consulting coaches at both club and international level, he decided to manage the pain and keep playing.
Noah Caluori wrist injury: ‘You just ride the adrenaline’
‘It would just hurt,’ Caluori said. ‘A lot of movements hurt, I had to modify a lot of my gym plans, catching the high balls hurt. I learnt how to manage the pain. That’s it, really.’
He said the decision to press on came after weighing his ambitions for the season. ‘I came to the conclusion that I’m going to push for this. I’m going to hope that I go on tour [with England], I’m going to try for the best season I can for Saracens, try and help us get to the play-offs. You just ride the adrenaline and learn to get on with it.’
Saracens and England both gave him the freedom to make that call, he said. ‘If it was too bad and I wasn’t able to play, they would have not let me. But they gave me the freedom to choose, I chose what I wanted to do, and then you’ve just got to live with your decision. I was pretty happy that I’ve done it.’
Record-breaking season despite injury
The gamble paid off in performance terms. Caluori finished the campaign as the Premiership’s joint-top try-scorer, posting 18 tries in 13 games. He made a try-scoring debut for England Rugby against Fiji, then appeared off the bench again the following weekend in a victory over Argentina.
Saracens fell just short of their own target, failing to overhaul Exeter on the final day of the regular season to secure a play-off semi-final spot.
Caluori posted a photograph on social media in July showing himself in a hospital bed with a heavily bandaged right wrist, confirming the surgery had taken place. According to the Telegraph, he is now expected to be sidelined for 10 to 12 weeks as he recovers from the operation to reconnect the ligament.
That timeline rules him out of Saracens‘ Premiership opener away to Leicester on Sunday, 27 September. He could, however, be in contention for their home fixture against Sale seven days later.
Caluori, whose mother Grace is a psychotherapist, said he regularly lists and revises his goals and is determined not to follow the path of young players who have stalled after a promising start.
‘I’ve had multiple chats with people, and it’s just similar things: “You have the ability to do it, it just matters about your mentality,”‘ he said. ‘They’ve seen loads of players who have done similar to what I’ve done, then drop off in two or three years because they got complacent. I don’t think I’m that type of person. I’m very hungry for everything.’
