Johnny Watterson on the brilliant Thomas Castaignede who has battledback from injury hell to play for France again.

November 4th, 2000 is a date French glamour boy Thomas Castaignede will remember with grim clarity. Anticipating a tough game with France against Australia in Paris, Castaignede was warming up when he felt a twinge in his Achilles tendon.

A rupture to the tendon was diagnosed almost straight away but after the recovery period, the Frenchman continued to suffer pain and discomfort. Little did he realise that the next two years were to be the most complicated of his rugby career.

In his pre-match warm up Castaignede had actually ruptured his Achilles tendon in two places. One of the tears in the tissue had been identified and repaired but he was effectively continuing to run on what was a seriously injured ankle. By the time the full problem had been identified it was August, 2001 and the damage had spread to 80 per cent of the tendon. Such expansive damage to that strip of flesh could not have been repaired by the body alone and the medical recommendation was the utility back undergo a tendon graft, with the necessary parts to be taken from his hamstring.

Again it was a straightforward, if severe, medical procedure but the graft failed to take and to his horror, a hole became visible around his ankle where the flesh should have gathered around the surgical wound.

The doctors went at it again. Telling the player the wound had to be closed for fear of infection he underwent his fourth operation. By this stage it was December 2001, over a year since the original injury.

"I noticed a really bad smell in the plaster on my ankle," he told the Guardian last year. "You could pull bits of my Achilles out with tweezers. The doctors took all the rotten stuff out, and they left an enormous hole, big enough to put your fingers in. I could see my ankle bone. I thought I would never walk again. Rugby was important but this was about other things like being able to play in the garden with my children."

It was New Year's eve of 2001 before Castaignede walked for the first time in 13 months. That day he says, he also had a shower, his first in five months.

With his dyed blonde hair, and intuitive flamboyance, his range of talents on the pitch had earned him French caps at outhalf, centre and fullback. In his Five Nations debut, the young Castaignede dropped a goal for France in the final minute to beat England, while in his international debut, in a Latin Cup clash against Romania in 1995, playing at outhalf, he scored 22 points as France ran out 52-8 winners.

A dynamic talent capable of running the ball from anywhere on the pitch, he is, at 28, looking to work his way back into the starting line-up and play in the World Cup.

"I never gave up hope but at times I was at an impasse and thought I would never come back. I was ashamed of limping all the time, of having to be helped. Sometimes I would crack and say 'I'm going mad - it's not possible what is happening to me'.

"I remember after the third operation, I asked the doctor to come and put me to sleep with some drugs. I said 'you have my life in your hands, this has to stop'. The best moments were when they drugged me because there was no pain. I lived with it every minute of every day."

Castaignede didn't lack the crucial moral support so necessary with dealing with chronic injury and in Arsenal's Robert Pires, the rugby player found a fellow wounded traveller. Pires was out of action with the cruciate ligament knee injury that forced him to miss the World Cup when he sought out Castaignede when he was back home in France recovering.

"Robert helped me a lot in my recovery. He came to see me in hospital in Paris," said Castaignede, who constantly moved between the Saracens club in London, his family in Toulouse, and the Pitie-Salpetriere hospital in Paris. Messages arrived from the French prime minister, Lionel Jospin, and the president, Jacques Chirac, while the doctor who carried out the final operation, Gerard Saillant, had been one of those responsible for getting Brazilian striker Ronaldo fit enough to play in the World Cup.

To compound Castaignede's injury nightmare, Saracens' millionaire owner Nigel Wray also became embroiled in a dispute with the French federation over who would pay the player's salary during his long period of incapacity and called on the French Rugby Players Union to resolve the issue. Wray argued that Castaignede had injured his Achilles playing for France, while the federation claimed he had already tried to play through the injury with Saracens long before setting foot on the pitch in Paris. While the disagreement sharpened international players' minds to the whole issue of career-threatening injuries and who was ultimately responsible, it was only ended when Wray and the French federation president Bernard Lapasset agreed a compromise deal.

Castaignede finally appeared on the pitch for Saracens in late April of last year, having engaged in light training with the club throughout the previous weeks. Coming off the bench that day against Northampton was the first time he had played for Saracens for 18 months. Two weeks later he tore a muscle playing for the Barbarians against Angleterre before undertaking his first competitive start in August .

"When I run I feel nothing, I'm complete," he said before Christmas. "It is an unimaginable joy. Coming back from Hell. You worry about a bad game, but at least you can run around. I love rugby and all I want to do is win with Saracens and get back into the French team."

Unable to ignore his talent, French coach Bernard Laporte drafted Castaignede into the squad for France's game against South Africa in Marseille towards the end of last year. Initially selected to provide cover for fullback Clement Poitrenaud but following the withdrawal of Tony Marsh, he was handed the outside centre's jersey.

"Thomas Castaignede is a player who has gone through a lot, but he has done all he can to get back in the squad," said Laporte. "He has shown great dedication and enthusiasm." In recent months he has played at fullback with Saracens and against Dynamo Bucresti in the European Challenge Cup he came off the bench to play at nine. Saracens have Castaignede signed on a four year contract and with their Challenge Cup semi-finals against Bath scheduled for mid April, there is a lot of rugby for the creative wisp to play between the Six Nations and the World Cup in the autumn.