Dale Steyn: “I’m going to have to give it time to recover”
Image courtesy of: Zimbio
South Africa pace bowler Dale Steyn will miss the remainder of the Test series against India due to the significant tissue damage he sustained on his left heel.
Steyn, who suffered the injury while bowling on the second day of the first Test in Cape Town, visited a foot and ankle specialist on the third day of the match and will be reassessed in four to six weeks’ time.
However, while he was present to see the Proteas beat India by 72 runs on Monday, he was seen using crutches to get around.
“I’m on the crutches because I’ve got a no bearing weight on the leg for a while, at least two weeks, which makes it seem worse than it actually is,” Steyn was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo. “But it’s right underneath the heel, so it’s extremely sore to stand on or step on. And as you know, as fast bowlers we land on that front foot pretty often. So I’m going to have to give it time to recover – six weeks, and I’ll be up and running again.”
Scans showed that that the plantar fascia, which is the tissue that connects the heel bone to the toes, had completely separated from the bone.
The specialist confirmed the injury on Sunday, but was unable to provide any advice on how Steyn can make a quicker recovery.
“I get quite close to the stumps, but that ball, I came a little bit wider and landed on the side of the foothold,” he said. “And I must have slipped on it a little bit. I walked back, stood there for a little bit, went to the top of my mark and tried to run, and I was like, ‘no, this isn’t happening’. I thought it was a bit of a bruised heel and they said, ‘let’s just go get an MRI to be 100 percent sure’. It showed up a little tear in the muscle underneath the heel.”
In the first Test, Steyn dismissed India opener Shikhar Dhawan and wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha to leave him just three wickets away from surpassing Shaun Pollock as South Africa’s highest wicket-taker in Test cricket.
South Africa captain Faf du Plessis admitted that he was gutted to see Steyn back on the sidelines, but believes the 34-year-old will put in the hard yards to return as soon as possible
“I feel incredibly bad for Dale,” Du Plessis said. “Having been injured myself, I know it takes a lot of time and effort to try and get back. Dale worked for a year. It was great to see him back and it looked like he didn’t go anywhere. Standing at slip, he looked like he could nick off guys at any time. Luckily, it’s not his shoulder again.”
While Steyn has now failed to get through three of his last five Tests, he expressed his relief that the injury was not related to the shoulder problem that kept him out of action for over a year.
“If it was my shoulder, which I was struggling with over the last year, that would have been extremely disappointing,” he said. “But this is a cricket injury, it’s like a batter getting hit on the hand and breaking a finger. So I’m okay with that, just got to put it away and get on with the job.”
It remains unclear whether Steyn will be fit in time for the four-Test series against Australia in March, but the Phalaborwa native insists he is looking to make his comeback during that series.
“Yeah, that (getting ready for the Australia series) is the plan. Next two weeks, nothing on my feet. Stay off my feet,” he said. “After that, I’ll start walking around, and in about four weeks, I’ll start running and then look to start practicing again in six weeks. That’s a long time. I spent a whole year out, so when someone says to me six weeks, it doesn’t sound too bad.”