De Lange was the most successful Test debutant in 2011

South Africa pace bowler Marchant de Lange is nearing his international return after having spent nearly nine months on the sidelines with a stress fracture in his back.

De Lange sustained the horrific injury in June last year and has already started playing first-class cricket in order to gain some much-needed match practice before he returns to the international frame.

Physiotherapist Ian Repton, who has been working closely alongside de Lange since his injury, noted that the pace bowler was picked for the unofficial Twenty20 tri-series in Zimbabwe since he and the rest of the team management thought that he had overcome the injury, however, their initial thoughts were wrong and it was revealed that de Lange actually had a much more serious injury.

De Lange’s initial recovery period was put at three months, but after a while it was doubled to six months, with Repton believing that the seamer would only be available by Christmas, which obviously did not turn out to be the case.

“It took longer than that for two reasons,” Repton told ESPNcricinfo. “We had to try and get his action absolutely correct so that the injury does not recur and then we had to wait for the muscle memory to take hold.

“There is no point in him bowling a few balls with the new action and then reverting back to the old. We were willing to take as much time as we needed.”

Repton has already worked on de Lange’s bowling action and promises that it involves less pressure being placed on his lower back.

“It will be a biomechanically better action,” Repton said.

De Lange has been bowling in the nets under the watchful eye of Cricket South Africa’s general manager Corrie van Zyl.

“It is very important that he gets overs into the legs now, so he is going to start off slowly and then we will see how it goes,” Repton said.

However, Repton noted that de Lange has remained upbeat throughout his recovery period “because it was explained to him that this would take time and may not be simple to fix.”

De Lange was 2011’s most successful Test debutant after having taken 7 for 84 against Sri Lanka in Durban.