Siddle sidelined for five months as bowling stocks continue to thin
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday February 4, 2010
CRICKET Australia has defended its management of Peter Siddle after the hardworking paceman, who carried injuries through much of a demanding summer, was diagnosed with a serious back injury set to rule him out of international cricket for five months.Siddle has a stress fracture near his rib and is expected to miss the Test and limited-overs series in New Zealand as well as the ICC World Twenty20 tournament in April.The 25-year-old's strenuous workload has been partly blamed for the injury but Siddle has also been advised he may have to tweak his action to lengthen his career, which is likely to be placed on hold until Australia's winter Test series against Pakistan, to be held on English soil in June and July.Siddle complained of back soreness during the just-completed one-day series against Pakistan, and was rested for the Australia Day clash in Adelaide. But he still travelled with the squad to Perth and played in the second-last game of the series, at the WACA Ground.After the stress fracture was revealed yesterday physiotherapist Alex Kountouris said returning during the ODI series would not have exacerbated the problem."In Adelaide I told him he is either going to have nothing or it's going to be something very serious. If we had scanned him in Adelaide and it showed nothing we would have exposed him to radiation for no particular reason so going over to Perth was the sensible thing to do," Kountouris said."Going into the game he actually had no pain and got through the game reasonably well but his back digressed to where it was before the Adelaide game, and that's when we investigated it."The injury is a severe blow to Australia, who are now missing four of the five pacemen they took to last year's Ashes series. Ben Hilfenhaus, Brett Lee and Stuart Clark have missed the majority of the 2009-10 season, while Siddle, the ICC's Emerging Player of the Year in 2009, is facing a lengthy stint on the sidelines.After being on the road for more than five months he returned early from last October's limited-overs tour of India with a side strain and later developed a hamstring problem that caused him to miss the third Test against the West Indies.Kountouris said the Victorian's relentless schedule was only partly to blame for the stress fracture and earmarked the Pakistan series in England as a realistic return date."There is a number of factors and workload is one of them but where his stress fracture is, is probably an indication it's something technical. We need to have a look at his biomechanics," he said.Former Test paceman Damien Fleming said Siddle has had a history with stress fractures, and said he may need to modify his action."When I was at the Centre of Excellence three or four years ago he had them already, before he got going," Fleming said."Generally it's a young man's injury, guys who are 19 or 20, he is 25. Brett Geeves is out with that too so I'm not sure what is going on. There are three factors to stress fractures in the back; one is a mixed action, where you counter-rotate your hips and shoulders by more than 30 degrees."The second is bowling workload, that can lead to it. And also, if you are quite weak in your core area, with the muscles in your stomach, that can cause it. Shane Watson has had three or four and people said he'd never play again, but he's come back better than ever and he's bowling a stack. He has changed his action, he was a massive counter-rotator. Pete might have to shore up his action."Fellow Victorian Clint McKay and rising star Ryan Harris are well-placed to fill the gap in the Test attack. And while Fleming said Siddle may struggle to regain his place for the Ashes if his replacement performs well, his clout within the dressing room as the bowling enforcer would be hard to ignore for the series against England.Hilfenhaus is yet to resume running in his rehabilitation from knee tendonitis, and is also doubtful for the New Zealand series, while Clark is nearing a return to Sydney grade cricket and Lee has not played a Test for 14 months. Lee, 33, has not yet decided whether to attempt an ambitious return to Test cricket before next summer's Ashes, or concentrate on the short forms. "I have to work out what I actually want from cricket now, see what I still want to tick off. I'll make that call when it's appropriate," he said.
© 2010 Sydney Morning Herald
