Steve Smith Goes To New York To Treat Neck Injury
A nerve-block injection on the morning of the game led to the conclusion that Smith would not be well enough to participate, despite early optimism inside the Australian camp that he would recover in time for the series final at Newlands.
Xtra Time Newsdesk: In an attempt to recover in time to play for New South Wales against Queensland in the Sheffield Shield later this month, ahead of the Test series against New Zealand, Australian batter Steve Smith has seen a specialist in New York regarding the neck injury that prevented him from playing in the final Test match against South Africa, according to Cricinfo. After feeling pain during the second Test at St George's Park, Smith was diagnosed with a cervical facet joint injury. He had to shift down the order in the second innings due to the pain, which also hampered his batting position.
A nerve-block injection on the morning of the game led to the conclusion that Smith would not be well enough to participate, despite early optimism inside the Australian camp that he would recover in time for the series final at Newlands.
After the series, Smith headed to New York, where he has an apartment and spends a lot of time, while the rest of the Australian team went back home. According to Cricinfo, he is anticipated to return to Sydney the following week.
"Just chatting to him in New York, he's had some specialist appointments there and some progress, I think, in terms of getting to the root of what might have been causing him some trouble in South Africa," chair of selectors George Bailey told reporters on Monday, as quoted by Cricinfo. "So hopefully that continues to trend in the right direction. His plan is he'll… be available for Shield [round] five."
Bailey stated that he was preparing for Smith to be available for the travels to India and England next year and that he had no signs that anything would speed up the Australian batter's retirement announcement.
"Yeah, absolutely. "I certainly haven't had any discussions with him to suggest otherwise. And as I said, the information that he shared from New York post those specialist updates are positive. And I think Ronnie [head coach Andrew McDonald] touched on this in trying to get to the bottom of what causes it and if it happens again, how quickly can we find a remedy that can get on top of it and get him back on the park. But he's an absolutely quality player and we're a better team with him in it… and he's been on record as saying that he takes that on a series-by-series basis and I don't think that's uncommon for players of his age," Bailey added.
"He has probably been asked about it more specifically than a lot of others. But for someone who's achieved a hell of a lot, and I still can see him achieving a hell of a lot more. I think we've got some pretty exciting series coming up. Yeah, I'm confident he'll be a very important part of them," he added.
