England captain Andrew Strauss has said that the England team will considering dropping football from their pre-match warm up following another injury, this time to the young opening batsman Joe Denly.
Denly was felled by a ‘clumsy’ tackle from team mate Owais Shah in a kick about on the Oval outfield today and was left on the ground in agony for fifteen minutes. Denly will undergo a scan later today but will almost certainly be ruled out of tomorrow’s one day International against Australia.
It is the second time an England cricketer has been injured playing football this year, Matt Prior suffered a back injury prior to the Ashes fourth test match at Headingley.
Strauss is obviously concerned and says:
“It’s very frustrating. Up until now, we haven’t had a case of anyone missing a game through a football-related injury. The reason we do it is that the players enjoy it, it gets them going. If we don’t have tackling involved, the risk of injury is very slight. But it’s happened now and we’re going to have to look at whether we should play football. Things might have to change.”
Denly was on the books of Charlton as a 15 year old, he chose to pursue a career in cricket after breaking an arm playing at the London club.
Just as well they don’t start looking at ski holidays this winter!
2 comments so far
1 Jon // Sep 9, 2009 at 2:13 pm
This is not the first time a cricketer has been injured while playing football. If a footballer got injured playing another sport, he’d probably be sacked. Why are cricketers so slack with their own personal fitness?
2 midkent // Jul 20, 2010 at 2:09 pm
Shame for the Kent player Joe Denly. While we all enjoy a kick around I am surprised the cricket team cannot find something with less contact involved for their warm ups.