Simmons' new start after career-ending eye injury
Harry Simmons knew he risked the permanent loss of vision in one eye if he attempted to play for Leicester Tigers again.
Still, the versatile back admits it can be difficult to see - even with a irreparably damaged right eye - how his career came to an abrupt end at age of 27.
It was on medical advice in December that he retired because of an injury sustained 11 months earlier against Leinster in a European Champions Cup loss.
He underwent emergency surgery to save sight in the injured eye, but the after-effects and danger of further serious damage being done, while playing or training, led him to hang up his boots and move into a coaching role at Tigers.
"I was lucky enough to have good people around me, close friends and family, to help make those decisions because I didn't want to make them on my own," he told BBC Radio Leicester.
"It was tough and I say to a lot of people that I almost wish I was in pain. If it was a shoulder injury or knee injury, I could say that doesn't feel quite right, but with your eyes and you are using them 24-7, it just becomes your new normal.
"My vision now is normal to me, I can't remember what it was like before to be honest."
What Simmons can recall, however, is the moment that ultimately ended his career.
He tracked a Leinster pass that sailed over his head and as he shaped up to try stop his man, the fend-off from James Lowe went horribly wrong for the scrambling Tiger who described the incident as "a freak accident".
"His finger went up into my eye and did a fair bit of damage," Simmons recalls.
"Initially everything, the whole vision in my right eye, just went black. I didn't know if my eye was closed or open.
"There was blood pouring our of my eye, which is never a good sign."
He was rushed to hospital, but it was not for another two weeks that he underwent surgery as the initially swelling masked the severity of the injury.
"I had tried to train in that time, which was not the best idea, but we didn't know at the time," he said.
"Then I had an appointment in February and they said 'you need to go into emergency surgery right now'. That was pretty scary because it it went from thinking it was not too bad to thinking this is very serious."
Simmons said the surgery to reattach his retina was deemed a success, although damage to his pupil could not be fixed.
Months of inactivity followed as his eye was given time to heal.
It was not until he returned to the pitch to train that "different symptoms" became apparent and that he had to consider what impact resurrecting his career could have on his sight.
"From the surgery, just the way the new structure of my eye was and how the muscles behind my eyes were damaged, meant my eyes were slightly off," Simmons said. "And they were only off when I was looking up and to the side; my normal vision was quite fine so I hadn't really noticed it in the stand-down period.
"But when suddenly chucked into training you have got all sorts of stuff going on and I'm getting dizzy and light headed. My double vision was really bad.
"That, combined with the ruptured pupil, which means a lot more light goes into that eye, catching high balls under floodlight or under the sun suddenly became a lot harder."
Simmons said that he, with the support coaches and staff at Leicester, "threw the kitchen sink" at trying to adapt his game to cope with the changes.
All the while, he was trying to push for a comeback despite "the fear and risk of reinjury".
"In my mind I always wanted to play again," he said.
"Once you have detached your retina once, you are a lot more likely to do it again. And doing it again for me meant I would lose all vision in that eye, which at 26 years old would not have been ideal.
"From surgery, really, I woke up a worse rugby player, which was even more frustrating for me than the risks of it was."
The end of his playing career did not, however, bring an end to his time with Tigers.
He took up a role as an academy and skills coach with the club, and works with teams and players from Under-15 level to Premiership Women.
Simmons also found himself involved with the first-team during the Premiership Rugby Cup, a competition that gave him his Tigers debut in 2017.
Simmons says he is "absolutely loving" the work which has him often working at Tigers' training base at Oval Park.
"I'm just finding my feet really and who I want to coach and how I want to coach," he said.
"Transition-wise, it's been difficult. But also because I've been in and around the environment, in and out of the changing rooms and having a laugh and a joke, it makes it a lot easier.
"Sometimes I forget and think I'm still here and I'm just not training."
