Ponting's future in jeopardy???

[Precambrian]

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24743008-2882,00.html

RICKY Ponting was last night warned his career could be cut short by a chronic wrist injury.

The Herald Sun has learnt the Australian captain will tomorrow visit his surgeon Greg Hoy in Melbourne to have his reconstructed right wrist assessed in a bid to ease the pain in the lead-up to Australia's heavyweight clash against South Africa.

It's understood a stabilising screw in the wrist is causing Ponting grief and he has required painkilling jabs to make it out on to the field.

Leading sports medico Dr Peter Larkins said Ponting needed to take 8-10 weeks off for the injury to heal properly.

"In theory it could have an effect on his longevity because of performance being affected, in terms of grip strength, mainly for his batting," Larkins said.

"If he is in pain and distracted by that, and it's compromising his performances from a batsman's point of view, his form might drop away and that would affect your career.

"I think he had a setback early in the recovery because he was playing. Now he may need to consider revising what he had done, because of that, not because it wasn't done properly."

Hope it is not that serious.

 

[KiWiNiNjA]

Bugger

 

[Ikki]

Yeah, funny that it isn't mentioned that Ponting was injured just recently, when people start criticising his batting.

 

[four_or_six]

Do the Aussies have anyone who is the obvious candidate to step in at No.3 if Ponting gets injured?

 

[Prince EWS]

Do the Aussies have anyone who is the obvious candidate to step in at No.3 if Ponting gets injured?

Hodge, really. Averaging 43 for Victoria in the Shield this season, bats three at First Class level and scored a half century in his last Test earlier this year.

Australian selectors have shown themselves to be quite random of late though - it wouldn't shock me if they picked someone like Marsh if Ponting was out.

The other option of course is to open with Chris Rogers who is in awesome form for Victoria and put Katich back down to #3, but I get the feeling the selectors just don't rate Rogers for whatever reason.

 

[Richard]

Would be awesome to see either Katich at three or Hodge in the side TBH.

It's disappointing if Ponting misses the series against SA but it looks like the choice is between play half-fit or miss, and generally the latter is ALWAYS the better option.

Guess Ponting might worry about some bugger nicking the captaincy though.

 

[haroon510]

on subject of replacing pointing in number three slot.. i thought it would be wise to try Michael hussey as opener while drop hayden or Jacques/Katich at number 3..

 

[Richard]

As I've said many times, it's clear that Australia will put no limit on the number of middle-order batsmen they are prepared to manufacture into openers to ensure that the opener Hussey remains batting in the middle-order.

 

[krkode]

Hmm... am I a bad person for being glad that Tendulkar's records will probably remain intact...


That said, though, I do hopes he stays around. The cricketing world needs a villain...

I KEED! I KEED!

 

[silentstriker]

I think he is still hungry for runs. He should be around for a couple more years at least, I would think, unless it gets so bad that painkillers stop working or something like that.

 

[Richard]

If a body part that's essential for batting doesn't work properly - terminally or temporarily - it doesn't matter how much you want it. You can't get runs without having the physical power to do so.

If Ponting is to keep playing for much longer, it seems this problem is going to have to be sorted. You'd hope he'd have the sense to make short-term sacrifice for long-term gain.

 

[BoyBrumby]

From a purely parochial point of view I hope he buggers it completely versus the yarps, needs an op & has to miss the Ashes.

 

[silentstriker]

If a body part that's essential for batting doesn't work properly - terminally or temporarily - it doesn't matter how much you want it. You can't get runs without having the physical power to do so.

It's rarely an on/off switch like that though. There are various levels of disability in a body part, and you can compensate for some. If he has full use with the use of painkillers, then if he really wants to play, he can opt to do that for a few years. Or if he doesn't have full use, but he can compensate with some work or bear some pain, he may also be able to get a few more years.

 

[silentstriker]

From a purely parochial point of view I hope he buggers it completely versus the yarps, needs an op & has to miss the Ashes.

Well, from a parochial point of view, I'd think you want him to play and be completely ineffective rather than being unlucky enough to unearth another Hussey in his absence.

 

[Richard]

It's rarely an on/off switch like that though. There are various levels of disability in a body part, and you can compensate for some. If he has full use with the use of painkillers, then if he really wants to play, he can opt to do that for a few years. Or if he doesn't have full use, but he can compensate with some work or bear some pain, he may also be able to get a few more years.

Of course it's not on\off, but BTSOT this is a pretty serious injury which is likely to impact on him quite a bit painkillers or no painkillers. It's not neccessarily a case of pain posing problems - pain is a warning that something isn't right. If your wrist isn't working properly, there'll come a time when it restricts you to the standards of a batsman not remotely worth a place in the team.

And in any case, a) painkillers don't work forever and b) over-use of them is very dangerous indeed and should be prohibited. After all, cricket is only cricket and not worth pumping yourself over-full of drugs and thus risking your health for.

 

[silentstriker]

Of course it's not on\off, but BTSOT this is a pretty serious injury which is likely to impact on him quite a bit painkillers or no painkillers. It's not neccessarily a case of pain posing problems - pain is a warning that something isn't right. If your wrist isn't working properly, there'll come a time when it restricts you to the standards of a batsman not remotely worth a place in the team.

And in any case, a) painkillers don't work forever and b) over-use of them is very dangerous indeed and should be prohibited. After all, cricket is only cricket and not worth pumping yourself over-full of drugs and thus risking your health for.

BUt if its been botherhing him and he has been performing up to the standard required to retain a place, then he can keep doing that until the pain killers stop working. As for their use, you wouldn't get past the first week of an NFL season if you didn't allow massive use of painkillers. Every single player has to take them if he wants to play, almost without fail, in the NFL. It should be a player's decision how much he wants to put himself through for cricket.

 

[Richard]

I don't know if I agree with that. There are times when the responsibility of a medic is to tell his patient "I'm sorry but I know better than you on this matter".

It's an unfortunate reality that in many different sports - far from just NRL or whatever that is - painkillers are a part of the job. As Matthew Engel put it in 1999: "I suspect future generations may consider our complacency on this subject barbaric".

 

[silentstriker]

Unless that shot is medically dangerous, a patient has the right to tell the doctor to go **** off. You can't force a surgery on someone, and if they don't want surgery, unless it's medically dangerous, you have to give them painkillers for the pain.

 

[NZTailender]

Reckon it's overblown just a tad. No doubt serious but the media tend to overhype such things.






Katich 4 Captain

 

[archie mac]

He mentions in his book that he had an operation after leaving the WI tour early, he just played a pull stroke and then it started to hurt.

He says in the book that it was now 100% right, but obviously not, would be a shame to see him go.

It is a common tennis injury, I wonder if it has forced any of them out? Simon!!!