Wallabies hooker Matt Faessler has shrugged off a 'rollercoaster' period as he returns to the gold jersey for the first time in four months.
Faessler will start in the front row on Sunday against Italy after an injury-filled 2025 derailed his season.
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The Queensland Red emerged as the Wallabies' first choice hooker in 2024, with a hat-trick against Wales putting himself in the history books as the first to do so in the number two jersey.
However, this game would ultimately mark the start of a frustrating 12 months for the 26-year-old, as he injured his calf in the win.
A hamstring injury towards the back-end of Super Rugby Pacific limited him to six games in the maroon jersey and saw him spend three months on the sidelines.
He'd return in time for the first British & Irish Lions match, only to pick up another calf injury that saw him miss the Rugby Championship.
“I had a bit of a rollercoaster year just through injuries and that kind of stuff. Extremely grateful and stoked to be getting an opportunity this weekend,” he said.
“...To be fair, when I first started playing professional rugby, I was really lucky that I put a lot of games together without getting any injuries serious enough to keep me out of playing.
“It was also a good time to get away from the game, work on other parts of your footy stuff, but also body comp heading into the gym a lot. I'm feeling really mentally fresh and looking forward to climbing into these last couple of games.”
Given his late rise into the game, Faessler's perspective on the injury never wavered as he worked his way back into the Test squad via the Reds and Australia A.
“Rugby's a fickle game," he explained. "One week, you could be playing the best you've ever played. The next week, you could be injured or not picked or whatever. That's kind of the nature of rugby and professional sport in general.
“You just have to roll with the punches.”
Faessler was calling on some unique advice as he prepares to deal with a rapidly improving Italy.
Club teammates Louis Werchon, Richie Asiata and John Bryant have spent the past couple of months with standout Italian club Benetton, with the Italian squad drawing the majority of their squad from the URC team.
“More so, just how they find the environment and all that sort of stuff…they’re loving it, particularly the number nine [Louis Werchon] and I think he's getting a bit of a cult following," Faessler remarked about what he's picked up from there.
“Probably one thing that I could assume to pick up out of that is Louis is quite a flashy running number nine. He likes to play expensive rugby [and] given how well he's going over there, you can probably assume that Benetton and, by extension, the Italians on the weekend are probably going to play quite similarly."
