Welsh rugby prodigy who blew everyone away is slowly putting it all back together

Whisper it gently, but there are signs that Keelan Giles may be upwardly mobile once again.

It’s never wise to speak too soon in these matters, let alone organise a Red Arrows flypast, but this time there is mounting hope that the diminutive Ospreys player is getting back to where he was prior to the injury issues that knocked his career sideways.

Not every casual observer may even remember him.

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He’s the wing who once made the shortlist for BBC’s Young Sports Personality of the Year, an award previously won by Wayne Rooney, Andy Murray, Theo Walcott and Tom Daley.

Referencing his “mesmeric footwork and gliding pace”, The Sunday Times called him a prodigy and said Welsh rugby had seen nothing like him since Shane Williams.

Leigh Halfpenny recalled Giles had been playing mini-rugby for Gorseinon 10 years previously. “You could see there was something special about him, even then,” enthused the much-decorated full-back. “He had so much gas; he’s a huge talent.” His old Ospreys team-mate Dan Baker said of Giles’s entry to the scene: “You just thought: ‘Wow!’ Who is this guy?’” You can see the type of remarkable things he was doing as a teenager back in 2016 here.

By now the talented youngster was supposed to be a superstar. But two major knee injuries over three years saw his progress halted. There has also been time spent patiently trying to rediscover his old sharpness.

But light has finally appeared at the end of a long dark tunnel.

Giles has started the Ospreys’ last five games and stayed on the field for the full 80 in four of those. Last Saturday, he was that rarity indeed, an Ospreys player who emerged from a tough afternoon against the Stormers in Cape