Emma Wassell: “I Knew I’d Play Again”

There’s a calm strength in Emma Wassell. The 30-year-old Scotland lock laughs easily, jokes about “smiling through fitness tests” but the past year has been anything but light. In September, she was diagnosed with a tumour in her chest. It was benign, but there was a bleed. Then surgery. Then a second, more serious operation involving a collapsed lung. All while still reeling from the sudden loss of her mum, Pauline, earlier that year. “It was a lot,” she