Noah Lolesio coughs quietly mid-sentence to compose himself. It’s been almost five months, and while Lolesio’s physical scars have healed, he is still working on the emotional ones.

“It’s still pretty scary,” he says. “Thinking about that situation.”

The “situation” unfolded on a sunny afternoon in Newcastle in early July, where the Wallabies were in the middle of a torrid Test match against Fiji. The fixture was designed to be a cobweb-removing match ahead of the British and Irish Lions series but, unsurprisingly against the spirited Fijians, it was proving tough going.

With the Prime Ministers of both Australia and Fiji sitting among a sold-out crowd, the Wallabies led 15-14 as the game clock neared 60 minutes.

The rusty Wallabies felt like they were one try away from clicking, and when captain Harry Wilson spun in a tackle and passed to Lolesio, the click looked on. The Wallabies’ five-eighth sprinted towards the try line.

“I copped a good offload from Wilso, and had a little line break,” Lolesio recounts. “But then one of the Fijian players tackled me. I sort of twisted onto my back, and I whiplashed the ground pretty heavily with my head.”

The ball came loose and Fjii counter-attacked, and with the noisy Fijian fans going crazy, all eyes were on the visitors as they went all the way down the field to score.

All eyes, except those of worried staff and family who had their eyes still trained on Lolesio. The 25-year-old had not moved.

“When I made the impact to the ground, it was pretty scary because I couldn’t feel anything in my body for probably five to 10 minutes,” he says. “I was trying to move my feet and my toes for first five or 10 minutes, and I was stressing a bit. I was, ‘Oh frick’.”

Pictures and footage show Lolesio lying stationary on his right side, with his right foot stuck up on top of his left. Medical staff raced onto the field and stabilised his neck.

“I was sort of just talking to myself: ‘Come on, just move something’. And I was praying a bit in my mind, too, just hoping everything will be all right,” Lolesio says. ” Within that ten minutes, then I could slowly start moving my toes. I was like, ‘Oh, thank the Lord’.

“Probably people don’t realise how bad it was. But yeah, it was pretty scary.”

Lolesio was taken to a hospital emergency ward, and fears he had suffered a fractured spine were soon allayed. The loss of feeling would turn out to have been caused by a bulging disc that had been troubling Lolesio for a year, and for which he was due to get a cortisone injection the following week.

And despite most assuming it was, the injury also wasn’t related to the similarly scary scenes when Lolesio was stretchered off and hospitalised in Perth two months earlier while playing for the Brumbies, also with concerns of a serious neck injury. That ended up being a mid-back strain.

“What the surgeon told me is that I’ve just copped a massive whack to my spinal cord, and it stirred it up big time,” Lolesio says. “The injury itself was pretty tough. But what potentially could have happened from that incident … Yeah, it could have been a lot worse.

“The surgeon at Newcastle said, ‘You’re very, very lucky it didn’t turn out differently’. He said I could have ended up in a wheelchair. That’s when it really hit home. It was like, ‘Far out’.”

A few days later, Lolesio underwent surgery in Brisbane to remove a disc in his spine, and, with a handful of metal and screws, fuse together the C5 and C6 vertebrae.

“It’s a pretty standard surgery,” Lolesio says. “The surgeon did a great job and the rehab’s pretty simple. You just got to let it heal and do its thing.”

It was not a career-ending injury, but the surgery was more than enough to rule Lolesio out of the Lions series and the rest of the Wallabies’ winter campaign.

Given he had played almost every Test in the No.10 shirt under Joe Schmidt, that would prove to be a problem for the Wallabies, who have since cycled through three different five-eighth replacements.

And while it was disappointing for Lolesio to miss the Lions series, too, the doctors’ sobering words in Newcastle kept put things into perspective.

“My first instincts was I was just more worried about my health than anything,” Lolesio said.

“Rugby I’ve been thinking about a bit more recently, but initially it was more just, man, I’m just so happy I’m able to walk, and be with my family, and just do day-to-day stuff.

“After getting a solid run in the Wallabies last year, I felt I was getting really comfortable in my form in the gold jersey. And then the injury happened.

“So yeah, it was tough to watch the boys play and do well – but at the same time, for me, I’m just happy I’m healthy and able to eventually play again.”

Lolesio rehabbed on the Gold Coast and last week booked his ticket to Japan, where he is set to take up a contract with a yet-to-be-officially-named Japanese club. It is believed to be Toyota Industries Shuttles Aichi.

Lolesio signed the deal last year, electing to broaden his horizons after six years at the Brumbies.

“I head over to Japan mid-November and I am really looking forward to it,” he says.

Given the seriousness of his injury in Newcastle, and lack of news about his Japan move, many have left Lolesio out of the conversation when it comes to the problematic five-eighth spot for the 2027 Rugby World Cup.

For the record, Lolesio remains very keen to play at the tournament. Given Schmidt seems uncertain about his best option – and recently brought Carter Gordon back from rugby league as well – there is also the scenario where Lolesio returns to Australia and the Wallabies No.10 jersey next year.

“I definitely still want to play in the World Cup,” Lolesio said.

“From what I have seen and heard … the Wallabies can pick any player overseas if they need and want them. So that’s never out of the picture, I guess. Hopefully, I can perform well in Japan.

“Joe’s leaving end of the middle of next year, and then Les [Kiss] will take over. But hopefully, my performance in the gold jersey over the past 18 months and how I’m playing in Japan can still put forward a solid case for me to come back into the gold jersey.”

Lolesio is on a one-year contract with another year option, and he’ll make a call next year whether he’ll stay or potentially return to Australia.

“But there’s definitely no doubt in my mind I want to be back in the gold jersey next year or the year after,” he said.

Knowing the difficulties of developing as a playmaker in the unforgiving spotlight of Test rugby, Lolesio said he had been impressed with Tom Lynagh and Tane Edmed so far.

And he is pleased to see Gordon back in rugby, particularly after fought his way back from a serious neck injury, too.

He’s been through both of those difficult places and is still standing.

And that’s a good place to start, again.