When you’re speaking of Orange Emus junior and NSW under-16 rep Fletcher Wright there’s few, if any, other words to use considering his story so far.

While he’s preparing to tour Fiji with St Stanislaus College Bathurst’s first XV, he still remains on the road to recovery after a head knock at the 2017 national championship, which didn’t seem that serious at the time, turned his life on its head.

He copped a knock in NSW’s first game of the tournament and while the initial head injury assessment (HIA) showed nothing out of the ordinary, Wright’s assessing doctor had some doubts.

“I passed all the tests and I said to the doctor this happens to me all the time,” Wright explained, speaking with NSW Waratahs media.

“He got a bit worried and asked me to get an MRI when I got home. It turned out I had a seven-centimetre tumour in my brain. The next day I was in Sydney at hospital.”

That head knock, in a way, potentially saved Wright’s life.

“He passed all the tests and all he wanted to do was get back and play the next game,” Ben Wright, Fletcher’s father and a former Emus and NSW Country star, said.

“But the doctor that looked after Fletch was very strict with the head knock protocol … the Waratahs guys were really good too in making sure he went through that process … and if we didn’t have that concern we wouldn’t have had an MRI, and we wouldn’t know.

“I don’t think anybody was expecting to find what we found, but if he didn’t have that we don’t know what would’ve happened.”

The young gun remains determined to get back to full health and, remarkably, explained he’s looking at a return to the training paddock in August.

“I was upset, but I just thought it’s happened now, let’s just get through it. There’s no point moaning about it, we’ve just got to get it done,” he explained.

“Everyone’s been so supportive of me to help me get through this … the doctor said six months (recovery period), so August this year.”

He’ll tour Fiji with Stannies, as the non-playing 26^th man, before that much-anticipated return though.

“The Stannies coach wants him there as part of the squad, which will give him the chance to be around his mates and the team environment in general,” Ben Wright said.

“It will be great for Fletcher being involved because once he is back to full strength, he can hit the ground running on the rugby front.”

He was also given the opportunity to speak to the Waratahs at the invitation of coach Daryl Gibson, a massive admirer of the young man’s courage and determination.

“It was an honour to have Fletcher in to address the team,” Gibson said.

“He has gone through his own personal adversities and displays the courage that we all are going to have to display when we have to face our obstacles.”