I'm not Lion..for the first time I needed a bit of a break

JGP BACK REFRESHED

- BY PAT NOLAN

JAMISON GIBSON-PARK'S season may only be starting this weekend but he has not been as idle as you may have thought.

Gibson-Park is not the only international class athlete in his household as his wife Patti has been chosen to represent New Zealand in judo in the past.

And, with their three children now at a certain age, she had been rekindling her love of the sport in a bid to follow in her husband's footsteps and wear the green of Ireland.

However, a cruciate ligament injury suffered in June has stalled those ambitions for now at least.

Back then, her husband was in Lions mode, meaning that surgery was placed on the long finger until recently.

"I was flat out with school runs for two weeks," Gibson-Park smiled.

But the setback, while significant, has not necessarily put paid to Patti's sporting ambitions just yet.

Gibson-Park said: "We'll probably discuss it closer to getting back to full fitness but if you asked her now she'd probably say yeah. But we'll see, see how things go."

Given how the Lions series in Australia ran into August, the Irish internationals that went on tour were understandably given an extended break, meaning that Gibson-Park makes his first appearance for Leinster since last season this weekend.