“This time I’ll take the time to let it heal properly”

Image courtesy of: Zimbio

South Africa pace bowler Dale Steyn has opened up about the shoulder injury he suffered on Friday, saying that he “felt this pop or thud in my shoulder”.

Steyn, who sustained the injury while bowling to Australia batsman Usman Khawaja in the 38th over, was taken to hospital for scans, where he was diagnosed with a “fracture of the bone in the shoulder joint”.

The 33-year-old is set to undergo surgery and will be out of action for at least six months.

“I felt this pop or thud in my shoulder and I was in a lot of pain … and went for an MRI and I’ve got a clean fracture in the bone that is inside my shoulder. It’s not pretty,” Steyn told Channel Nine. “I just felt something go. I did something very similar against England in December in a similar area but it wasn’t as bad.

“That was a stress reaction which is like a very hairline (fracture), a small little crack. This time is it’s more of a fracture it’s kind of broken the whole bone. I will probably look to have surgery and have to get a plate in and get the bone back together or something.

“I’m looking at about six months minimum before I’m going up again.”

Steyn admitted that he rushed back after suffering a similar injury against England late last year, but insisted that he will not make the same mistake this time around.

“There’s a lot of cricket to be played and people want you to play, so I didn’t have the full time to recover,” the Phalaborwa native, who is just five wickets away from overtaking Shaun Pollock as South Africa’s highest wicket-taker in Tests, said. “I’ve been dealing with this for quite some time now. I probably should have taken a bit longer.

“But I was wanting to rush and get to the Twenty20 World Cup, I wanted to go to the IPL. I wanted to play. So this time I’ll take the time to let it heal properly.”