By Matthew Fisher
Unfortunately I ended the season by picking up a stress reaction injury in my back, which has ruled me out of this week’s T20 competition in Abu Dhabi and also out of Lions contention for their pre-Christmas tour.
Before the Scarborough four-day game against Worcestershire in late August, I had played a lot of one-day cricket and then went to bowling quite a lot of overs in three or four sessions in that game, and I was starting to feel a little bit of something in my back.
I then practiced before the Somerset game at Headingley the following week and could still feel it a bit, although it wasn’t stopping me bowling and playing.
I also picked up my toe injury in that game, which did keep me out of action for a week or two. But once that had recovered, I came back and played a second-team at Scarborough. However, my back pain was still there. So that’s when it was decided a scan was needed.
I think Andy Flower had rung Martyn Moxon to see whether I was fit, and their physio had rung Kunwar Bansil to ask the same question.
I don’t know whether I’d have gone with the Lions, but it’s a definite positive to know that I was in their thoughts.
The injury is not as bad as a full on stress fracture.
I have a 30 percent crack in my L5 vertebrae on my left side, which is quite a common area for young bowlers.
After bowling a lot in the day, it would agitate me and would affect me more the next day, bending down and stuff. But it’s all settled now, and I can do most things.
I’m obviously resting from the gym for a bit, and it’s usually a 6-12 week layoff, but we’re in no rush with it given the time of year. I wouldn’t be bowling until after New Year anyway.
If there is a positive, it’s the timing of it being at the start of the winter.
Maybe looking to the future, we’ll have to look at building my red ball overs up more and more in the second team or something to get my body used to longer games, although that’s not a conversation we’ve had yet.
