Graeme Smith’s ‘unusual’ ankle injury adds uncertainity to his return
Greame Smith has already been ruled out of the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy 2013 © Getty Images
Johannesburg: May 28, 2013
South Africa captain Graeme Smith will be out from action for at least up to four months after undergoing a ‘highly unusual’ ankle surgery, a senior Cricket South Africa (CSA) official said.
Talking about Smith’s return, Shuaib Manjra, the head of organisation’s medical committee told Reuters, “It is too early to tell with any certainty — he had a highly unusual operation and it is difficult to predict how long it will take for the stress fracture to heal.”
“The best-case scenario is that he returns to playing in around four months, but that could stretch to six months or even longer,” he added, as reported by supersport.com
He has already been ruled out for the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy 2013 and is unlikely to be fit for South Africa’s trip to Abu Dhabi when they take on Pakistan in Tests and ODIs in October and November.
The surgery included insertion of two pins and injection of additional bone marrow into six holes on his ankle to help with the healing process.
“He had a similar operation in 2011 and we thought we had solved the problem only for it to return six months later. So we will have to wait and see how it goes this time,” Manjra said.
“This operation will fix the acute problem, but we must find out what is causing the stress and balance the load as best we can. Graeme is a big chap and his bones take a lot of stress. We will continue to manage his playing and physiotherapy schedule. He will also have a special boot custom-made in the addidas laboratory in Germany that we hope will help to take the pressure off the ankle,” Manjra said.
South Africa host India for three Tests, seven ODIs and two T20s later this year in November.