Shaheen Shah Afridi talks about injury woes and road to recovery amidst training for Pakistan

The Pakistan cricketer, Shaheen Shah Afridi, has opened up about his injury, the road to recuperation and his mindset during the course of his recovery. For the unversed, Shaheen Afridi has been out of action since November 13, 2022, when he had to walk out of the T20 World Cup final between England and Pakistan.

While fielding during England's innings, Shaheen had very akwardly landed while taking Harry Brook’s catch. He had returned to bowl the 16th over but the unbearable pain forced him to leave after the first delivery.

Wanted to give up: Shaheen reflects back on injury phase

For any player. nursing back from an injury is tough as both the  physical and mental aspects involved. And Afridi was no exception either.

“There were times when I wanted to give up…I was working on only one muscle and it was not improving,” the 22-year-old said in a video released by PCB Digital, as quoted by the Indian Express.

The tall, lanky pace-bowler poured his heart out, stating that when he intially suffered the injury, he believed he would soon be able to resume the game as such injuries are quite normal and regular for a sportsperson. But, after medical scrutiny and examinations, he realised that the injury had aggravated a great manifold and he would literally have to miss the game for quite sometime.

Also to be informed, Afridi did have a partial weakness to his knee, which had kept him out of the Asia Cup in 2022 as well. The speedster had undergone rehabilitation in London for a knee injury he had sustained while fielding during the first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle in July 2022.

Shaheen Afridi further added that keeping away from his profession did at times took a massive toll on his mental health, but to motivate himself, he would go through his videos where he could see himself bowling and taking wickets, which would again charge him up and encourage him to recover and get back on the field.

“Often during the rehabilitation sessions, I used to say to myself this is enough, I cannot do this anymore. But then I used to watch my bowling on YouTube and see how well I had done and that motivated me and I told myself to push a little more. It is frustrating for a fast bowler to miss cricket because of an injury,” Afridi concluded.

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