Apparently none of us have actually seen Henry bowl
without back pain, if not a stress fracture. WAG!
Cricket | Recovery mission for Wizards cricket flatmates... | Stuff.co.nz
Quote:
Injured Canterbury cricketer Matt Henry goes under the knife next week, but he should expect little sympathy or help around the house from flatmate and fellow quick Ryan McCone.
McCone has his own surgery today, to remove a floating piece of bone from his landing ankle.
His recovery is likely to be a relatively quick one – four to six weeks – while Henry could be out until Christmas.
The 20-year-old will have major back surgery next Tuesday to repair a stress fracture in the lower back.
It is the same surgery – performed by the same surgeon – as a trio of other Canterbury bowlers have had.
Shane Bond's career was extended by the procedure, while Andrew Ellis has rocketed himself into the New Zealand team after the surgery strengthened his back and improved his confidence in it. Hamish Bennett had the surgery in February and is still on the mend.
Throughout the domestic season, Henry had to miss games to rest what was thought at that stage to just be a "stress reaction", but further scans after the season ended revealed the pain was being caused by a stress fracture.
Five consecutive summers playing cricket had improved the talented youngster's form enough to first be picked for the Canterbury side then impress outgoing Black Caps coach John Wright.
But it had also damaged Henry's back.
"It was probably just before my debut [for Canterbury] in late 2010 that I started feeling it," he said.
"We just had to manage it, but at the end of this season it was really bad and I had to come off at the end of each spell for a rub down."
From there it was a no-brainer to have the surgery, he said, despite feeling nervous at the prospect.
It was too early to say how much time away from the game he would have to spend, but it would be at least three months until he would be given the all-clear by the surgeon to push himself and the end of the year is a fair estimate for a return to domestic cricket.
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