Kicking back with Karmichael

It's good to be back!!!

Since the last blog, I've been to New York and back to visit family (check out my Insta to see some pics)... But right now, it's good to be back at Ballymore and back into action.

Today, I was lucky enough to sit down with Karmichael Hunt and hear, among other things, how his injury recovery is going! It was great to see him him and also James Slipper with their trainer running on the field. It looked like they are both making awesome progress!

I hope you enjoy my latest interview, and getting to hear from Karmichael himself how he is going.

Hey Karmichael, how's it going? Thanks for making the time to catch up.

I'm going really well. My pleasure Tom.

How's the ankle going?

Yeah it's going well. I've been out of my moon boot for 2 weeks now, so into the second week I've started to run, and today, which is the end of the week (Friday), I've probably had my best running session yet. So all positive signs for me, that I'm heading in the right direction with football, and the ankles feeling great.

What's the next step for you?

The next step for me... Next week, I just got told by my physio that I'm going to be stepping up my running. So I'm probably going to be doing a lot more running, in terms of fitness sessions, and then hopefully in a couple of weeks time I'll be able to play some football.

Congrats on being selected for the Wallabies squad earlier this year. That was a huge achievement.

Yes it was. Thank you very much. It was definitely a huge achievement for me, especially for my career and having gone through some tough times individually, but also with the team up here in Queensland as well.. It was nice to be selected, along with Eto who made his debut, and we obviously had Quade in the team who's been there many times before, as well as Samu. So it was a huge honour for myself and my family.

What was it like putting on the gold jersey for the first time?

Well, it gave me goosebumps. I'd watched the Wallabies play so many times on TV before, and it had been a dream of mine ever since I came to Queensland to the Reds 3 years ago now. So for me to finally be able to pull the jersey on, I had a lot of emotions going through me, thinking about family, my parents, all the people who put hard work into me to get me up to this point, it was a really huge moment for me.

Well, we were all proud of you for getting there. You played brilliantly. We were gutted when you got injured. I'm really glad your recovery is going well.

Thank you very much. I enjoyed being involved with the Wallabies, and it is a shame that I got an ankle injury in the last round of the year, but these things happen in football. You just have to rehab it, move on, and get fitter and stronger and push for selection, which hopefully I'll be doing in a few weeks time.

What did you get up to during your down time?

Obviously, you probably know I've got 3 daughters and a wife, so my time at home is pretty well spent with the kids. We took them down to the beachh a couple of times, they love going down to the water, down on the Gold Coast, so just hanging out with the girls, doing a bit of study as well, so yeah not much travelling for me, just been here in Brisbane, looking after the family and keeping them happy.

Have you found any good music or books lately?

Yes I have actually, music wise, it's not new music,  it I've definitely found some good music that I've been getting into, I've been enjoying a bit of Metallica, so it's not my usual playlist, but Metallica, Guns N Roses... I've been getting into my rock which is pretty cool.

Did you watch any of the Wallaroos games at the World Cup?

I saw the highlights, I didn't watch any full games but definitely they gave it a good shake, they played some good football, and me having three daughters, it's nice to see the ladies playing sport that generally men would play. So definitely proud of them.

Cool. Well, thanks again K for taking time out for this. It's a pleasure as always.

Yeah my pleasure as well! It's always good to talk to you, and to be on the blog for the second time. So hopefully we can talk again in the future.

Sounds great. As supporters, we're all behind 100% you. Keep getting better fast.

Thank you very much. I definitely appreciate the support. So thank you very much.