WARRIORS scrum half Jonny Arr believes the best is yet to come after returning to full fitness following a lengthy injury lay-off.
The Worcester-born player, who missed the second half of Warriors’ 2015/16 campaign due to a knee injury he picked up in the club’s 24-20 defeat to Harlequins in January, said he was itching to return to action in the Sixways outfit’s pre-season after undergoing a knee operation.
The former Royal Grammar School student, who has played more matches for his hometown club than any other current player, said sitting out the latter games of last season’s Premiership campaign have helped him in the long-run.
“Given the timing of the games at the end of last season there was no need to rush coming back,” said Arr.
“Our medical, strength and conditioning team have been spot on in making sure I can come back in better shape than ever.
“Myself and Biggsy (Tom Biggs) were training partners during our rehabilitation break out in Texas, USA, as both of us were injured.
“He’s a great bloke and very good for morale so he kept me going during a tough time.
“It can be difficult not being able to play for a long time but it was great to then go and catch up with my old team-mate and good friend Jake Abbott, as well as having some time off to clear my head.
“I went through a phase of having drum lessons and I’ve been taking part in wrestling which has helped me. Wrestling is pretty tough. So far I’ve had eight fights and no wins, so I have plenty to work on.
“I came up against Biggsy a few times and he’s pretty strong for his size. Sam Smith seems to gain some sort of super strength through his beard and Luke Baldwin is useful too,” he added.
Despite Francois Hougaard and Baldwin also gunning for the number nine jersey, the 28-year-old is setting his sights on a return to first team action ahead of the new campaign.
“It’s going to be pretty tough with lots of competition at scrum half. Francois came in last season and had a huge impact while Luke also took his chances.
“But I’ll keep training hard and hopefully we can all drive each other on to become better,” he added.