Healy fears McGrath will nail down shirt as he eyes return

Had things been different, the Leinster star would have spent yesterday preparing for the Springboks but instead he was back in bed, promoting the wares of King Koil in what the marketing types would describe as 'synergy'.

He's had enough of the leaba by now, but the doctors have urged him not to do too much too soon after tearing his hamstring off the bone in a freak training injury.

"I was a week or two ahead of schedule but I've been told I have to stick to protocol because the tendon re-attaching and stuff takes 'x' amount of time," he said. "I'm trying to avoid getting that false sense of security so everything is quite cautious.

"The surgeon said I'll probably be able to run at the end of December, from that it's just how quick I can make it back and hopefully make it into contention for the Six Nations."

The injury was as unexpected as it was painful and Healy knew it wasn't good, describing it as the worst of his career to date.

"I just broke off the back of a maul and I was in open space for a bit of a run and I caught my heel in the ground and my knee locked out and my body went over the top of it," he recalled.

"I just extended the whole back of my leg and folded over it, so it just popped out of the back. It was miserable enough pain.

"I thought I was after pulling my hip out of place because it was a big hit. Jamie (Heaslip) was slagging me about the shriek I left out. It was a pretty bad one.

"It was just 'ah b***ocks, that's a bad one'. The kind of time-frame didn't creep in until I was talking to (Richardt) Straussy and he was telling me his craic and how long it took him and how it's not really possible to go too far ahead of what they say, so that was a bit of a killer."

Surgery was required and it doesn't sound pleasant.

"They cut at the bottom of your arse and the top of your hamstring. It was only a small scar, a four or five-inch cut," he said.

"I gather there's pins in the hip or in the pelvis and threads at the end of them. That's what the hamstring is reattached to. Knowing that, tells me a little bit more about how cautious I have to be because it's literally hanging on by a thread. It made getting out of bed a bit more nerve-wrecking."

Healy admits that missing out on Ireland camp has been difficult as much for the off-field activity as the prospect of sitting out the South Africa game.

"That's killing me," he said. "I had (Ian) Keatley over last night and he was talking me through camp and what they're doing.

"They all went out to the 'Damnation' thing last week and I was doing rehab.

"It's a bit torturous like that and you're training on your own, but my mates have been good, calling around, or when I wasn't moving much they were bringing me out for dinner, so that kind of takes your mind of it and lets you get back to being one of the lads as opposed to being the drill sergeant."

In his absence, Jack McGrath has thrived at Leinster and is expected to be named in Joe Schmidt's starting XV today. Healy knows his rival is a threat.

"You'd worry about that without being injured when you're playing day to day," he said. "Give him a sniff of the jersey and he's a driven enough player who's not going to want to let it go, you know?

"All credit to him, he knows his stuff, he's quality and that's going to be one of my big tasks when I come back.

"Coming in having run for three or four weeks maybe, that's my time-frame to take (the jersey) off someone who has been playing international, playing European.

"That will be a tough thing to do. That's probably going to be the biggest task, rather than coming off the injury.

He won't be there to help, but Healy reckons McGrath and the rest of the Six Nations winners are in a good place going into November.

"I don't think there's any fear from any of the lads, it's a positive mood," he said. "Training is good and they've been happy."