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 says, understated. “But I always had the goal: get back to rugby.” Recovery was slow. Small wins. “It felt like injury rehab, just… bigger,” she says. “Week by week, I ticked things off.”
Now, nearly a year later, she’s back with the Scotland squad – not just on the side-lines, but fully in pre-season. “I didn’t get eased in,” she grins. “But I loved it. It felt so good to be suffering with my teammates again.”
Wassell’s last cap was at the end of the 2024 Six Nations. At her lowest point, she feared it might be her last. “That Ireland loss stuck with me,” she says. “When I got sick, I thought: was that it? That can’t be it.”
She credits her teammates and her sense of humour – with getting her through. “They made a fuss at the time. Now they’re over it,” she jokes. “‘Your sympathy is up, Wassell!’ They keep me grounded.”
She’s itching to pull the Scotland shirt on again. “That first cap back will mean everything,” she says. “I’ve worked for this every day. I feel lucky, but I’m also ready.”
Her message is clear: no sympathy needed. She’s back. And she’s pushing hard for cap 68.
