Durham Cricket right-arm quick Brydon Carse is pleased with the progress he is making following the torn cartilage he suffered during England Lions tour of Australia in November.
“I am doing ok, I am doing good, I have had quite a good positive last couple of weeks so things are looking good going forward,” Carse said.
Carse sustained the injury during practice on the Gold Coast as part of the England Lions quarantine period, he said: “It was like any other training day, the day before we had quite a heavy day of training I got through 16 overs in the day, my body was feeling fine.
“I completed my warm up that morning as normal and I got told to warm up to bowl, bowling off maybe 5 to 6 steps, with very low intensity and unfortunately I landed on an uneven surface and pretty much twisted my knee.”
With the England Lions due to play two inter-squad games and one first-class game, Carse would have played a key role in the Lions team, he added: “When this happened it obviously wasn’t great, I tried to almost run it off and continue to bowl but as soon as I started getting into my run up for that fourth ball I kind of new something was serious and had to go and see the physio straight away.
“Then late on that afternoon the swelling was quite bad and that is when I knew that potentially something is not great here.”
Following the injury Carse retuned straight back to England, undergoing surgery at Fortius Surgical Care hospital in London, “ To be fair the ECB were phenomenal, I think I did it on a Thursday and by the following Wednesday, 6 days later I was back in London and having the operation done, so credit must go to the ECB and to Durham for organising that so quickly”, Carse said.
“The past two weeks have been very positive, a lot of my strength is coming back and we are pretty much on target for the initial goals which I set out for a return to play. Fingers crossed as I am going to London in mid February for my 3 month check up with my specialist, so everything is going according to plan at the moment.”
Carse is currently undergoing rehab at the Riverside with the Durham medial staff: “ Monday to Friday I am in the gym with Sam [Clark] and Paul [Khoury] doing my rehab and conditioning sessions, which take me up to mid morning, and look I do have a lot of down time so it just about trying to keep occupied and busy. I am spending most afternoons over in Bannatyne’s in the pool doing extra rehab and recovery.
“I have a weekly schedule which I am following at the moment and little goals which I setting at the end of each week, some weeks I am achieving those goals early on in the week and other weeks maybe it is taking a bit longer but that is part of the whole process and like I said the people who I am working with at the moment are playing a massive part of that.”
With the County season now just under 8 weeks ago, Carse is positive about getting back to cricket with the lads soon, he added: “ The initial 6-8 to weeks of my rehab I didn’t really think about cricket but over the last couple of weeks I have made some good improvements to where I am almost getting that itch back to get back into training and get into some batting and bowling, so hopefully after my 3 month check up in February, if that is all good and I get the all clear, then towards the end of the month into March I can start getting back into some skills based cricket with the boys.”