A ruptured ACL, ruptured MCL, ruptured meniscus, torn PCL, torn patellofemoral. No, not the extended version of the torture scene from Reservoir Dogs but, instead, the list of collective ailments suffered by the right knee of Olly Hartley, the Saracens centre, after one solitary tackle at the end of a routine victory against Gloucester in April 2024.
Hartley, 24, required full knee reconstruction following the catastrophic injury that visibly shook Saracens’ players and coaches, including director of rugby Mark McCall, on the StoneX pitch after the match. The surgeons, who in some perverse take on Humpty Dumpty had to literally put the knee back together again, thought it would take Hartley 12 months to recover, which was then lessened to 10 post-surgery. Remarkably, the former Wasps centre returned in just shy of seven months.
“I remember throwing my shoulder at a tackle in the last play, someone landing on me, and just hearing crunch, crack, pop,” Hartley tells Telegraph Sport. “I’ve had bad injuries in the past but nothing like that. I remember looking at one of the Gloucester players and asking: ‘Did you hear that?’ He went: ‘Yeah.’ And then I just rolled over. Agony. The physios were on so quickly, though. Hugh Tizard on the sideline was shouting ‘Olly, get up!’ but there was absolutely no chance.
“It was a bit of a car crash. That was the start of my career, really, that season, having played 20 games and represented England A but the feeling was so weird. It was a great season and I had to be grateful for that but I remember being in that ambulance thinking: ‘I have got a long road ahead.’
“I spoke to Jack Willis [who Hartley knows from Wasps and who suffered a shocking knee injury on England duty] and he texted to offer his support and we chatted on the phone a couple of times. There was still that doubt straight away of whether this was the really bad one, the one that no one comes back from.
“It being so bad helped my rehab because it meant I gave everything to the process. I didn’t want to be the bad one who never came back. I did it in April and I came back in November. I knew that if I did not get back for the Prem Rugby Cup in November I might not be back until the same competition in February because they wouldn’t want to throw me into a Prem or European game after eight months.
“I enjoyed the process of trying to get back quickly, focusing on recovery, game-ready nutrition, and cutting out alcohol.”
Desperate for game time after another minor injury setback, Hartley began this season on loan with Ampthill in the Champ, but now the centre is back with a vengeance. Nominated for the Gallagher player of the month for May, Hartley has started Saracens’ last four Prem matches – all victories – and alongside in-form fly-half Fergus Burke is keeping the great Owen Farrell out of the starting XV.
The north Londoners have mounted a sensational late-season challenge for the top four having looked way off the pace two months ago and Hartley, whose father Gary played centre for Nottingham, has been at the heart of it all, setting up tries and scoring them, as he did in Saracens’ improbable victory against third-placed Leicester last month.