Luke Cowan-Dickie reveals extent of his injury hell and determination to get his England shirt back: 'I couldn't move my arm when I woke up from the op. I couldn't eat. I couldn't do anything!'

Luke Cowan-Dickie picks up a set of darts in the Sale Sharks team room and stands square to the board. It is an unorthodox stance, both feet facing forwards, almost as if he is throwing a lineout. He throws straight at the bullseye. One shot, one kill.

‘It’s easier to pick a target point in darts because it’s stationary,’ he explains, shaking the soreness out of his right arm. 

‘The release point is similar, though. If you’re throwing with shape, you release early. If you’re throwing flatter, you release later.’

Early last year, Cowan-Dickie barely had the strength to lift a dart, let alone throw one. The soreness around his arm is the result of a career-threatening injury, which required surgery to his C5 vertebra to relieve nerve damage.

‘My shoulder burns when I play too much darts; I feel it in my deltoid. I had decompression surgery on my vertebra. 

'When you keep getting compressions from all the big hits, the hole in the bone the nerve goes through gets narrower and narrower. They had to shave it so the nerves could get back through it, opening it up with a little drill. The nerve that fed my shoulder muscles and my bicep effectively died.

‘When I first woke up from the operation, I was quite high from the anaesthetic. The surgeon asked me to move my arm and I couldn’t… I think he thought I was taking the mick. There was a two per cent chance I would wake up with a lack of movement and I was in that unlucky percentage.

‘None of my muscles were firing For at least two months. I couldn’t move my arm off my side, I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t do anything. 

'Looking back, it was pretty mental. The rule of thumb is you get 70 per cent of your strength back within nine months. With me it took a bit longer. It takes up to two years to get 100 per cent back. 

'It’s way better now. Strength-wise, it’s improving and my arm’s getting a bit more bulk on it. 

'If I say throwing darts helped me get fit then maybe I’ll get an invite to play in a league!’

Moving over to a table in the corner of the room, Cowan-Dickie reflects on the Six Nations campaign that he partially missed owing to an irregular heartbeat. 

He was put on a monitor for five days before being given the all- clear. Returning to play the role of travelling reserve, as understudy to Jamie George and Theo Dann, he found plenty of time for playing darts.

‘Freddie Steward’s proper keen on his darts and we were travelling reserves together for the last few games. It’s a bit more relaxed when you’re not in the 23. I’m used to the travelling role but Fred hadn’t really done it before. With Fred, playing well against Wales and then travelling the week after, I wanted to help take his mind off it. We only had one board and it was always free after everyone had gone to bed, so we had a few competitions.’

Now 30, Cowan-Dickie is not content with ending his England career as a darts-playing, travelling reserve. He has signed a contract extension at Sale, keeping alive his England ambitions until 2025. 

A move to France last summer was cancelled owing to injuries, but he has since reconnected with the hunger to return to the forefront of Steve Borthwick’s plans.

‘I’ve signed for one more year. I’ve been performing pretty bang average for Sale since I arrived in the summer and they looked after me when I was in a s**t spot. My arm’s getting better and hopefully I can perform better now to say thank you.

‘I wouldn’t say I’ve recalibrated my goals but staying here keeps the door open to England. Getting back into the set-up in the Six Nations has shown me that everything happens for a reason. We’re only going up from here; the way it worked out is perfect.

‘Everything was a bit of a mumbo jumbo before and England wasn’t really at the front of my mind because of all the injuries. I hadn’t played for the best part of a year. Playing for the Lions in 2021 was probably the most enjoyable year of my career. It’s lit a fire to know that I can get back to that level.

‘As much as seeing the boys winning makes me happy, I couldn’t sit here and lie to you and say that I don’t want to be back in the 23. Of course I want to get back in the England side but until I start performing for Sale I don’t think I justify it. Hopefully I get some game time under my belt and perform better in the run-in.’

Cowan-Dickie has settled into life in the North West, a six-hour drive from Penzance, where his grandma, Ruby, used to take him to play darts at the Astro Park. ‘She threw quite front-on, too… very loopy.’

His father, Adam, a trawler man, occasionally delivers a few kilos of hake and today the family will have their eyes on the AJ Bell Stadium where the gritty hooker will face his boyhood club, Exeter.

‘Playing against the guys I played with for so long will be a bit weird but it probably provides some motivation. Jack Yeandle lived next door to me so I’ll definitely be getting into his ear a little bit. I might hold him down in a ruck and give him a couple of digs in the ribs!’

There is little room for sentiment, though. Sale have suffered four Premiership defeats on the bounce so a winning run is essential for a late charge for the play-offs. Their England stars are back in the frame and Cowan-Dickie hopes their experience will get the team back on track.

‘We’ve got to treat each game like a play-off because we need wins to make the top four. I’ve been in situations like this before and you’ve just got to get through it. Losing never makes anyone happy but we’ve still got good energy and we’re training well. When the mood is c**p then things spiral out of control but we’re not too worried. When we get that one performance it will keep going.

‘You might not have seen it when we lost to Bath last week but I feel like the break’s been good for us. Some boys are back from injury; we’ve got George Ford and Manu Tuilagi back from England. When we have some time in the saddle together then we’re definitely going to improve.

‘Having someone like Fordy, he’s really good at telling you what he wants. He doesn’t join in with the darts though, I don’t think he could handle losing to a Cornishman.’