Meg Varley's return after 'serious' injury: 'All that's left is the fake ligament and half a screw'

The try scored by Ilona Maher in Bristol Bears’ 41-31 PWR victory at Exeter Chiefs last weekend has been the most talked about, but it was the one scored by Meg Varley that brought about one of the biggest smiles on the day.

That is because the 25-year-old, playing centre in that game but often used on the wing, has had a torrid 11 months with injury and the well-worked five-pointer marked her return to the big time.

The highs and lows of top level sport were encapsulated in one week in February last year for former Worcester player Varley.

On Monday 19th February, the ex-England under-20 cap was called up to the full Scotland squad for the first time in the build up to the Six Nations, her selection coming as a result of good club form and a paternal grandmother who was born and bred in Edinburgh.

That was the high, but then came the low when she suffered a serious foot injury the following Friday as Bristol defeated Loughborough Lightning 33-17 in a league match.

“It was two days before I was due to fly up north and meet up with the Scotland squad for the first time when, after about ten minutes against Loughborough, I ruptured a ligament in my foot and things had changed pretty quickly,” Varley recounts.

“Straight away I couldn’t walk and I thought ‘there is something pretty bad here’ and then we got it scanned and the scan came back to show that it was a pretty serious injury that would need surgery.

“At the time it was very much ‘it is what it is’ and I just started to focus on the recovery process, but once I was watching the Six Nations on TV and then sitting in the stand watching Bristol play in the PWR semis and final a few weeks and months later I felt a bit down about things as you want to be out there playing in big games.

“However, injuries happen in sport and I just worked hard with the medical team at Bristol to get myself back and into shape.”

Surgery came two weeks after the injury occurred and for a further fortnight after that Varley could not put any weight through the foot at all – “to get anywhere at home I was crawling around on all fours”.

Partial weight bearing, full weight bearing in a boot and then getting out of the boot followed in the next couple of months.

By the time she was back running and up to full speed in the summer during pre-season ahead of the 2024/25 campaign, Varley had quite a bit of metal in her foot to get used to.

“Normally with the surgery I had it would just be a metal plate screwed into the top of your foot, but because there was so much movement there they had needed to put another two screws into the side of my foot and that restricted movement,” Varley explained.

“After a good summer I managed to get back to play the agreed 40 minutes in the PWR Up match versus Gloucester [a 31-21 win in September] and was ready to build from there.

“But I then pulled a hamstring in the same leg as the recovering foot while training and when the medics took a look at that they also re-examined the foot and felt that my running wasn’t going quite right.

“As a result, my foot was scanned again and it was discovered that one of the screws had snapped so I was booked in for more surgery and I got everything drilled out of the foot. All that is left there now is the fake ligament they put in and half a screw effectively.

“Obviously at the same time as all of that was going on the hamstring injury was not improving so when I got back to running again it took me quite some time to get up to full speed and, suddenly, we were up to after Christmas time.”

Varley’s name appeared on a PWR matchday squad list for the first time in nearly 11 months recently against Gloucester-Hartpury when she was on the bench on January 5th at Ashton Gate [a 41-17 loss].

And then she was selected at 13 to start last Sunday in the aforementioned bonus point win over Exeter at Sandy Park, taking a neat offload from new winger Ilona Maher to scamper in for a try in the 44th minute.

 

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“It felt so good to score that try and to help the team get a win and now I just want to keep building from here over the last few weeks of the campaign,” Varley, whose Bristol side are now just three points off the PWR play-off spots ahead of a round 14 clash with Leicester Tigers at Ashton Gate on Saturday, said.

“I feel like I still have a lot of catching up to do to get up to speed with the girls, but that Exeter game has certainly given me confidence and now I don’t want to think about the foot any more I just want to focus on the run in, getting minutes under my belt and helping the team.”

And, with the Six Nations starting on March 22nd and a Rugby World Cup later this year in England, has the uncapped speedster thought about a Scotland recall?

“If things do progress well and I do get the chance to link up with Scotland again then that would be great, but at the minute it is just making sure that I am fit and whatever happens will happen,” she stated.

“I know that the Scotland coaches watch our games down here and it was nice to be in the conversation last year, but given the troubles I have had with the foot I just have to take things one game at a time right now.”

 

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Varley’s recent comeback has coincided with global superstar Maher joining Bristol and she has loved having the American in the dressing room.

She said of her fellow back: “Ilona has come in and fitted in straight away, she is such a lovely person and, first and foremost, she is here to do a job on the rugby field.

“She has brought a lot of energy to things and she will be a great addition to the squad.

“Obviously the media attention and the fan interest that she has brought with her is something a bit different, but we are keen to embrace that because the more eyes that are on women’s rugby the better, especially in such a big, big year for the sport.”