JACK REGAN IS sitting in the lobby of a hotel in Tokyo as he looks down the lens of the camera and shakes his head, clearly a bit incredulous about the story he’s going to recount.
This was sure to be an interesting call with a man who has taken the road less travelled in rugby, but there was far more to his story than expected.
The 27-year-old Birr man has been through the wringer.
“It has been mad, to be honest,” he says.
When second row Regan moved back to Europe from New Zealand in 2021, signing a three-year deal with the Ospreys, it seemed the world was his oyster.
He had enjoyed an impressive rise in Kiwi rugby after being released by Ulster in March 2020, starting in the amateur club game in Dunedin and going all the way to Super Rugby with the Highlanders in the space of a few months.
He was in demand when he decided to move closer to home. Regan had offers from French clubs and Premiership sides, but a relatively rare three-year deal in Wales was hard to turn down.
Irish fans were excited about what Regan could do – the next Tadhg Beirne, anyone?
But then it all went quiet. Regan was barely playing. On the call from Tokyo earlier this week, Regan explained everything as he got set to fly back to New Zealand, a seriously tough three years coming full circle.
First, there was a cruel injury a few months after he joined the Ospreys. Having played four games and made a good start, Regan injured the meniscus in his knee.
“Ever since then, it hasn’t been great,” he says.
He had an operation in January 2022 and was out for 10 months. He missed the first part of pre-season for the 2022/23 season and by the time he got back, he says he found himself out of favour, feeling like the Ospreys had lost faith in him.
He did play a few more games but opportunities were limited to just six appearances in the whole season, only two in the starting side at blindside flanker.
“It was tough,” says Regan. “I had come back from New Zealand and I was doing interviews and articles on World Rugby and stuff. They signed me on a three-year deal and expected me to make an impact but the injury at the start was hard.
“I feel like in rugby when you’re up in the medical room every day, you’re out of the coaches’ eyeline and almost forgotten about in a way. That’s the nature of the game.”
It was clear that things weren’t working as both parties had hoped. Regan wanted to leave, Ospreys were happy for him to go, and they came to an agreement.
Regan was looking elsewhere but then last summer, a terrifying bolt out of the blue.
“I went home after training one evening and I had a pain in my calf,” says Regan. “My girlfriend, Isabelle, was with me and I was walking up the steps to the apartment ahead of her, which was weird because I normally walk up behind her.
“She said, ‘Your calf is quite swollen and red.’ So I rang the doctor and explained it was sore and swollen. He asked me if it was an insect bite but it wasn’t itchy, it was just pain really. He told me to go straight to A&E.”
Regan had to wait 12 long hours before finally getting a scan on his leg. He was stunned by the diagnosis – deep vein thrombosis.
He had a blood clot in his leg, just above his knee.
“It was mind-blowing. I had heard the term blood clot but would associate it more with the brain. When they explain the dangers around it, everything goes out the window in terms of rugby.
“The big danger with a clot is that it can travel up into your lungs and cause a pulmonary embolism. It can block your airways and can kill you.”
The hospital put him straight onto blood thinners and told him not to exercise at all for a month.
It was a huge shock for Regan, who was wondering why he had this blood clot. The medical team in the Ospreys were baffled. It could happen to players who had recently been through surgery and were bed-bound, but it was a year since Regan’s surgery.
He was transferred to a specialist, who put Regan on a three-month course of blood thinners. He took them every morning and evening, then went back to the specialist for another scan. More scary news.
“The clot had grown all the way up my left leg, like a little string, is how he explained it. It was all quite grim.”
So now Regan had to go on new medication that involved injecting himself twice a day. It was another three-month course.
Complicating it all was the fact that Regan was experiencing chest pains.
“I was in and out of A&E,” he says. “We were on the way to Cornwall one weekend and halfway down the motorway, I get this really bad chest pain, so we come off the motorway and into A&E.
“The scan was all clear but at that time when you get chest pain, you think the worst.
“I think now that it was anxiety.”
Thankfully, the next three-month scan showed that the clot had hardened. The specialist was happy with the development and so Regan had a choice between coming off the medication and returning to rugby or staying on the medication for the rest of his life.
It would be impossible to play rugby on blood thinners, with all sorts of risks with things like concussion. The crux of the decision was whether they believed there was a reason the clot had formed in the first place or if it was ‘unprovoked.’
Regan eventually figured out what might have started it. When the Offaly man was just back from his meniscus injury, he used to go to the physio room every day after training to ice the knee, wrapping it very tightly with plastic to hold the ice in place. That bid to ease swelling had possibly resulted in a clot, they theorised, but couldn’t say for certain.
Regan made the big decision to come off the medication in January and he’s had no issues since. He understandably still gets anxious when he gets any cuts or nicks on his body but he’s feeling good.
Regan has been grateful for the support from Isabelle and his family throughout the ordeal. His father, All-Ireland-winning Offaly hurler Daithí, has been a big part of Jack’s drive to make it, but rugby was forgotten when they heard news of the blood clot.
Having got the all-clear, Regan was desperate to get back up and running with his rugby and finally, an opportunity popped up in an unexpected place. The Shokki Shuttles in Nagoyo, Japan needed a lock ahead of their second division promotion play-offs.
So off he went on another adventure, landing in Japan in mid-March. Things started well in his first two games, but then Regan suffered an unfortunate bang in the back of his head and had a month-and-a-half on the sidelines dealing with headaches.
“I haven’t put three games of rugby together week-on-week since New Zealand, so that will tell you how bad it’s been,” says Regan of his lack of luck.
Regan returned for the last two play-off games and was hoping to get his short-term contract extended into next season but Shokki were looking for a lock with Test rugby experience.
He and Isabelle have loved the brief experience of living in Japan, but Regan decided to head back to Dunedin, where his career really took off in 2020 after being let go by Ulster.
“I’m over the blood clot and I feel like if there’s one place where it can happen for me again and I can reignite things, it’s back in New Zealand,” says Regan, who surprised his old team-mates at the Dunedin Sharks club by turning up at training on Thursday.
He hopes to pick up a deal in the upcoming National Provincial Championship, having previously shone for Otago to earn his Super Rugby caps for the Highlanders in 2021. He admits he’s constantly checking his phone to see if his agent has found a contract.
If it doesn’t happen in New Zealand, he will have the chance to come back to Ireland to be around family in the next few months, stopping off in New York to see friends on the way. Regan is due to be a groomsman at Connacht back row Paul Boyle’s wedding later this summer, the pair of them having first bonded while playing for the Leinster Youths.
Regan has also been studying for a degree in business management through the Open University, keeping an eye on life after rugby. Not that his ambition has been diminished.
He only turned 27 last month and feels he has good times ahead of him in rugby. Regan also believes he has a point to prove.
“I have been a professional rugby player for the last few years but in my head, I haven’t made it yet.
“Back in Birr, I’m known as Jack who plays rugby but you look at the other boys from Birr. Peter Dooley played over 100 times for Leinster and is now with Connacht. Mikey Milne could play for Ireland in the next few years.
“I’ve had such a broken-up couple of years. I played a handful of games for the Highlanders, 10 games for the Ospreys in three years. I’d like to think the best is yet to come. If I can keep injury-free, I know what I can do.
“I still have to get there, in my own head.”
And at the same time, he’s just happy to have the horrible scare with the blood clot behind him.
“Your health is number one,” says Regan.
“I feel like I’m lucky to be back playing rugby and whatever opportunity comes next, I’m just grateful to be healthy and to be able to play rugby.”
