The 33-year-old – who is comfortable in the back-row or at lock – featured for Wayne Pivac’s Wales in their Six Nations game with England in March 2020 before the coronavirus pandemic began.
But since then, Shingler has been fighting an inflammatory condition which he was struck down with after being taking ill during lockdown.
The Scarlets man has had to be cared for by a rheumatologist and take special medication, but now he is back in training with his region and hopes to play in the next couple of weeks.
“It’s been a real rollercoaster for him,” said Scarlets head coach Glenn Delaney of Shingler’s struggles.
“It was an inflammatory response. Those things tend to come under rheumatologists. If you have an overactive inflammatory response, it can affect joints and your ability to move and walk.
“The key thing was to get that under control, which they did really well, but it does take time.
“It was pretty scary there for a while for Shings.
“Every day something was changing and it did take a while to get it under control. At a stage there, he was taking it hour by hour and then into day by day.
“As things progressed and the specialists got on top of it, you could see the signs of recovery.
“You then go through the phase of reducing the dose in terms of the medication.
“We are really fortunate that the experts who were on hand to help him did a great job.
“It was more of a health-related situation, which I guess could happen to any of us, regardless of being a rugby player.
“Now that’s all subsided, the key thing is the re-conditioning.
“He is back on the training field and in full units so we are not too far away with him.”
Shingler has 27 caps for Wales. He made his Test debut in the Grand Slam-winning Six Nations campaign of 2012. He was also involved in the Championship win in 2013.
He played for Wales at the 2019 Rugby World Cup, but has spent a long period out injured before after suffering a serious knee injury in action for the Scarlets when they faced Leinster in the 2018 Guinness PRO14 final.
“We are just slowly building him up, but I reckon in the next couple of weeks we might be able to shift the needle on him,” Delaney said of Shingler.
“It’s looking really positive around him which is a massive relief.
“It’s now just about him returning to being a rugby player which we are really pleased to see happening.”
