When he speaks of what he has been through, Ben Carson is pretty matter of fact about it all which is striking but is part of it really — you experience trauma, get over it and move on.
Indeed, it’s now hard to believe that, just over three years ago, everything looked so bleak for him.
Carson’s journey has certainly been top heavy with turbulence and, for a while, it looked as if his rugby dream had crashed and burned and yet, now, here he is part of the Ulster squad and about to play his seventh game of the season — just his eighth overall — not long after signing a three-year contract.
It’s a testament to the 22-year-old’s resilience and belief that he has got here at all in the wake of what was a potentially life-threatening spleen injury he suffered when playing for Ulster A back in September 2021.
He got through it and, somehow, after puncturing his spleen and being bed-ridden for weeks, found a way back to taking the pitch again, even thriving to the extent of making the Ireland Undr-20s squad for their Grand Slam of 2022 when he played alongside friend and now Ulster colleague Jude Postlethwaite and a certain Richie Murphy had the coaching reins.
“Injury is part of the game,” says Carson, whose performances in the centre this season have been opportunities he has grabbed with both hands ahead of the midfield becoming more crowded when James Hume returns to action from his anterior cruciate ligament surgery.
“But I did get through a pretty tough time with the spleen and the doctors kind of told me there is a chance that you could die.
“That’s kind of terrifying,” he admits of an enormously challenging time in his life and he doesn’t flinch in retelling it.
“But you play the game because you love it and, yes, there were thoughts going through my head when I was going through the stuff that I don’t want to play again, and that is really tough.
“Then you just remember the reason you play, I got better and I got through (other) injuries, and I suppose it made me more resilient and better for it.”
Many would have parted company with a game that requires such bone-juddering hits and risk of other serious injury, but Carson, again, had his dark moments — he had even been told that he may never be able to play rugby again — but still proceeded towards the light as he saw it, running out and onto a pitch to pass, tackle and kick .
“I was thinking I don’t really want to go through that again,” he says of his spleen issue, “but I don’t want to do anything else but play rugby.
“Even back then (during his recovery), I didn’t want to do anything else but be a rugby player and here we are now.”
Ben Carson
It took months before he could train properly again but his single-mindedness helped forge a path back to playing once more.
Though he did remarkably return for Ireland Under-20s, Carson found himself in that grey zone of being outside the Ulster squad with precious little opportunity coming his way; that began to change when Murphy came in last season.
“I think myself and Richie have a pretty good relationship, he coached me at 20s and we won the Grand Slam and I think he was happy enough with how I went,” he explains.
“So when he came in here, he was telling me from the start he was going to give me those opportunities that I hadn’t been really getting and when I did, I was delighted.”
He does follow up by mentioning that fortune has indeed been on his side when it has come to breaking through this season.
“I would say a year ago or even six months ago, it wasn’t looking as good for me as it was recently.
“I didn’t get the chances I wanted but with a few injuries, the likes of James Hume being out, (Stuart) McCloskey has had a few niggles here and there and that sort of gave me the chance to perform and I’m pretty happy with it.”
He debuted in November 2023 off the bench against Connacht for a defeat in Galway and was next given a chance last October when Murphy handed him a starting shirt for the first time though in Pretoria for what turned out to be a quite a drubbing at the Bulls.
Carson did, though, manage to score a first try which saw him put on the afterburners down the flank as a reminder that he has pace as well as power.
Since then, he has also faced Toulouse which didn’t end well for Ulster or himself, coming off with a knock after just 20 minutes of what proved to be a truly dismal occasion.
“It is great experience playing against the best teams in the world,” he insists. “The Bulls would be up there with one of the best club teams, Toulouse I think everyone one would say they are the best club team in the world.
“Going from playing club rugby here most of the past few seasons (he has turned out for Banbridge and Ballynahinch in the AIL) to getting thrown in at the deep end makes you get your act together because you are up against it.
“That is what you want because it grows you as a person and a player so fast being thrown into the deep end like that, but it’s been good.”
Though unclear just who he might be facing on Saturday evening and whether Bundee Aki gets a run out, Carson feels that exposure to top players in his position — he has already played against Aki this season — has to have been beneficial for him
“My first few caps this season were against some of the toughest opposition, I played Bundee Aki, near the start of the season I played against the Bulls and that gave me great confidence to play against anybody else.
“I know Toulouse didn’t go as well for me as I had hoped as I got injured there but I am just excited to play against the best in the world, that is what we do and that is what we play the game for, it should be good.”
He continues the theme: “I watched loads of rugby going up, I watched Bundee, watching all the best centres in the world, you kind of take bits and pieces from them but, at the end of the day, I want to be my own man.
“There are parts of my game that I think that I would say I’m definitely not better but trying to be similar (to Aki) and hopefully one day maybe even be better.
“It’s definitely watch and learn.”
Few have dealt with such adversity and come out stronger.