Roberts is raring to go
Destructive Wales centre Jamie Roberts has joined his teammates at a training camp in Poland after recovering fully from his knee injury.
The Cardiff Blues midfield star underwent reconstructive surgery on his knee which forced him to miss the international tour to Australia, but has linked up with Rob Howley's squad once again ahead of the upcoming Test matches against Argentina, Samoa, New Zealand and Australia at the Millennium Stadium
A Wales training squad has visited Olympic training villages in Poland on two previous occasions – ahead of their World
Cup campaign last year (Spala) and to prepare for their 2012 Six Nations Grand Slam campaign (Gdansk).
Roberts completes his Polish hat-trick this week, having been present on both previous visits, and he is a huge advocate of the intense training environment which he knows will be created for him and his fellow squad members by the Wales coaches and performance staff over the next week.
"It's good to be back fit again and good to be back with Wales," said the 44-times capped centre, who was the British and
Irish Lions Player of the Series against the Springboks in 2009.
"I have had three or four full games back now with the Blues, we may have had some disappointing results but I feel as though I'm getting back into the groove and becoming battle hardened again.
"All players want to play and it was a particularly difficult place for me to be this summer, watching Wales play out in Australia and come so close," he said.
Roberts, as a final year medical student, has a unique understanding of the benefits of the cryotherapy sessions which the Wales squad use to aid recovery from their intensetraining in Spala – where a normal training day can begin at 5.30 for some and finish after 21.00 – but he also sees a psychological advantage of the trips to Eastern Europe.
"We know what is ahead of us, there is a really good structure to the training days, interspersed with the cryotherapy sessions which aid recovery," said Roberts.
"Coming from a medical background it's obviously something that interests me and I've had many conversations with the performance
staff and coaches about it.
"It's hard to quantify the physiological effects of the cryotherapy, you certainly feel better, but there is a much more obvious
psychological effect on all of us just from coming out to these camps.
"We are taken away from the public glare and focus that is on us in Wales and concentrate on training at an intense level," he explained.
Meanwhile, Wales have confirmed an agreement reached with French club Perpignan for the release of lock Luke Charteris for their clash with Australia at the Millennium Stadium on 1st December, in return for the player being available to his club on 10th
November.
"We are delighted to have come to an agreement with Perpignan which will allow Luke to be available to be considered for selection for the Wallabies game," said Howley, who travelled to France alongside head coach Warren Gatland last month to begin discussions about the release of Wales' overseas contingent.
