Mike Brown: I gave my Harlequins kit to charity because I was certain my season was over

As he recovered from a serious knee injury that saw him go under the knife in November, Mike Brown was so certain that he would not play further part in the 2019-20 Premiership season that he gave his Harlequins kit to charity.

Yet last Friday he lined up in his usual spot at full-back in the win over Sale and on Saturday he will do the same at Saracens. All it took was a pandemic-induced five-month delay.

“It’s so strange, because I never thought in a million years that I would play a part in this season,” he says. "Even when we went into lockdown. I gave all my kit away to charity, raising money for the NHS. I had nothing until a few days before the Sale game!

"I see these games as bonuses for my career. I had written them off. I want to make the most of it and hit the ground running, which I think I did on Friday night, and I want to keep building.”

Strange is certainly the word. Last Friday, Sale got changed in the socially-distanced Mike Brown Bar at the Stoop. Just after Quins finish against Saracens at Allianz Park on Saturday, London Irish will be playing at the Stoop, which is now their temporary home. And next week all these teams will be playing again in the first of three midweek rounds in this relentless mini-season. Brown has known nothing like that since he was a Quins rookie in their season in the Championship in 2005-06.

“I said to the Sale lads please don’t deface it [the bar],” he says. “I expect to walk in there at the end of the season and there to be all sorts written on the wall.

“That’s odd, and so are midweek games. It’ll have to be a pretty much completely different team on Wednesday, and we’ll be watching on TV and training without those guys around. It’s all things we have to adapt to. I just hope us or no one else has bad luck with injuries, and the midweek games will start to become tough in terms of player welfare.

“Playing without a crowd was a bit weird but I was so focused and involved in what I’m doing, I kind of forgot. Could hear so much more of the players around you. I was trying to be the loudest guy to keep my focus because if you allowed yourself a second to take in the surroundings of how different it is, you’d be off task.”

Being back on the field has vindicated many hours of hard rehab in lockdown for Brown. He would wake up early and spend hours working on kit he hired (a leg extension machine, squat rack, dumbbells, and wattbike) just before lockdown, all the while talking on Zoom with the sprint coach Margot Wells and Quins physio Elliot Clarke, who assessed his progress. Then, came family time with his two-year-old son. “there was no rest,” he says, with a smile.

“I can’t complain, I’ve been lucky with injuries,” he says. “I tried to spin it on its head so it allowed me the chance to mentally and physically freshen up. Before that injury I was strapping up five parts of my body, now it’s only my two wrists, which I’ve always had to do.

“Normally when injured at least when you are down you can still come into the club and see people, get reassurance from the physios when something doesn’t feel right. Not having that was tough, but it shows you can be self-reliant if you have a plan.

“I just didn’t want to come back with any excuses at all.”

Beating Sale was a scalp for Quins, who have designs on a late-season push for the play-offs. Completing the double over relegated Sarries, who they thrashed 41-14 in January, would be another step in the right direction.

“Every game is massive for us now,” Brown says. “Even more so when we are going to Sarries, with that rivalry. They have achieved a lot more than us in recent years but will be annoyed about what happened at the Stoop earlier this season.

“They had some big names missing that day but they’ll be back. They are a proud club and even though they’re relegated they will still want to win every game and are warming themselves up for a European game.

“We have top-four aspirations so need to win almost every game because we are still seventh, which isn’t good enough. I for one am sick of being in the bottom half of the table. We had a good first year under Paul Gustard but we are down in seventh again and we need to step up.”