Well, that didn’t last long. Former Wallabies skipper Michael Hooper will sensationally come out of retirement to lace up the boots in Japan.

The 33-year-old has been convinced to return to Steve Hansen’s Toyota Verblitz side in the Japanese League One competition.

It comes after two-time World Rugby Player of the Year and double World Cup winner Pieter-Steph du Toit was injured.

“There wasn’t too many places I would have really been keen to play, and this was right up there because I had such a fond memory from being up there a few years back,” Hooper told Wide World of Sports.

“Really lucky, to be honest, and thankful for Steve Hansen to give me an opportunity.

“I’m not rugby ready just yet, not making a tackle or really throwing the ball around for quite some time.

“I just need to probably put on a kilo or two.”

Hooper, the Wallabies’ most capped captain and 125-Test veteran, retired after he fell just short in his bid to feature in last year’s Paris Olympics.

Despite making a positive impact in John Manenti’s Australian side throughout the World Series, niggling calf injuries cruelled his hopes of getting on the plane.

“By the end of that I was pretty cooked because it felt like I’d been battling body stuff for a while and not getting the rewards out of it,” Hooper said on Wednesday.

“So when I finished up with sevens, it was very much a case of, ‘OK, well, I’m needing a break’. I don’t know what it’s going to look like. I don’t know if that’s taking the field again. If I don’t take the field again, I’m OK with that.

“But there is still a little part of me that would like to see if I could mix it again. I’m just stoked. It’s a bit of a Hail Mary that we didn’t see coming. There was some discussions a while back but this has really developed in pretty much a week’s time.”

The disappointment came less than 12 months after sensationally being left out of Eddie Jones’ Wallabies squad for the failed World Cup campaign.

“What a ride! My Olympic journey has come to an end, and with it, my Australian rugby career,” Hooper wrote on his Instagram.

“To the Aussie sevens team, I wish you all the best you’ve been an awesome, helpful, and talented group of athletes to be part of.

“As for my time in Australian rugby, I’m grateful to my family and friends for their unwavering support throughout. We’ve shared an incredible journey, filled with unforgettable experiences, challenges, and memories. Thank you.”

Hooper hasn’t played a game in the 15-man game since captaining the Wallabies against the Springboks in the opening fixture of the 2023 Rugby Championship in Pretoria.

Although Hooper was slated to play against Argentina a week later, the inspirational leader picked up a calf injury at the team’s base in Manly. It proved to be his final week in gold.

Despite Jones picking several players under an injury cloud including Samu Kerevi and Max Jorgensen, the controversial figure dropped a selection bombshell ahead of the World Cup by leaving out Hooper as well as other senior figures including Quade Cooper, Bernard Foley and Tom Wright. Centre Len Ikitau, who picked up a shoulder injury in the process of scoring against Argentina during their gut-wrenching late defeat in western Sydney, was also looked over.

Speaking at the Cauliflower Club last year ahead of the Wallabies’ Bledisloe Cup Test, Hooper said he had made peace with the fact he didn’t get the dream finish to his international career.

“I think the trigger point was losing to Argentina in Parramatta, we definitely had a plan, and were working on that plan,” Hooper said.

“We ended up getting spanked over there in South Africa, in Pretoria, they ended up being the world champions. And then to lose after the bell against Argentina in Parramatta, from that point, there was a complete change of rhetoric, a complete change of how we’re going to do this, and what it was going to look like, a 23 World Cup in Paris.

“I have forgiven him.

“I just thought, imagine if you could go out on top, imagine if you could go out with a bunch of guys, how good would it be that your last game was to win a World Cup, that is just incredible.

“So I had this picture in my head of driving towards that, and that’s a huge factor in why I’d want to get up off the ground, push myself when the doors close and no one is watching.

“But to then get the call, not going over, it’s like OK, as a leader … I’ve done things that aren’t saintly, I’ve stuffed up off the field, I’ve stuffed up in a team environment, made bad calls, as a leader you make the call, you’ve got to stick with that call.”

On the selection shake-up that ultimately backfired, Hooper added: “He made a call, I don’t agree with the call.

“And I’m not just talking about me, I don’t think one person could have made enough of a difference to change where that World Cup went.

“But if you had enough of a group of players that had been working together for four years at that point, I think the outcome would have been different. Maybe not winning the World Cup, but certainly going better than what happened.”

It’s believed Hooper’s return isn’t motivated by a potential carrot of playing against the British and Irish Lions.

But if anything was to occur to star flanker Fraser McReight or 2024 representatives Carlo Tizzano and Liam Wright, Joe Schmidt would have the back of his mind that he could call upon Hooper in a similar way to Robbie Deans calling up George Smith dramatically 12 years ago.