England women’s team are boosted by Heather Knight’s return for the West Indies tour, starting next month, after England’s skipper declared herself fit again following hip surgery.
Knight was sidelined for a long time during the home summer after she suffered a hip injury during the first of three T20I matches against South Africa in July. Knight also was not a part of England’s Commonwealth Games 2022 team – where the Three Lions ended their campaign in a disappointing fourth position. It was the time the England captain decided to have an operation to repair torn tissue. Knight has come through a hard rehabilitation process to be fit and well to travel to the West Indies for three ODIs, starting on December 4, followed by five T20Is.
“It feels like it’s been a long old rehab but I’ve just come good the last couple of weeks and am getting back to pretty much full training now,” Knight told ESPNcricinfo.
“Fielding has probably been the one thing that’s been a little bit niggly and a little bit of pain, but I’ve had a really good couple of days so I’m fit to go to the West Indies, which is great.
“It’s just the last couple of weeks, certain positions that the hip didn’t really like, but the last few days it’s been good as gold so I’m ready to get back and play,” she added.
Regarding her hip operation Knight said that it had slightly changed the shape of her hip joint to give more movement.
“It’s actually a much healthier, better hip joint than it was. It hadn’t been an issue that was on the radar, but I played in one of those T20s against South Africa and it flared up really badly and I knew it was something new that was not good,” she said.
“As the Commonwealths got closer I had a bit of a flare-up. Basically that got worse and worse and I was in pretty much constant pain which obviously wasn’t very pleasant and was quite wearing. I was still hopeful that I was going to play because these things can clear up pretty quickly but, as I got worse and worse and ended up on crutches, I pretty much knew that Commonwealths were a no-go,” the England captain said. (ANI)
