Image Credit- AFP
In order to treat the residual swelling in his left
knee that forced him to cancel his Test tour of India, Jack Leach is scheduled
to have surgery.
Following a day one dive close to the boundary that resulted in him injuring
his knee on the ground, England’s left-arm spinner suffered the injury during
the first Test in Hyderabad. He was limited to a few four-over periods as the
injury worsened the next morning after another blow in the field. Leach managed
to complete 36 overs in the game, but the tourists won by 28 runs to claim a
1-0 series lead.
That was how much of the swelling Due to his inability
to flex his knee, Leach was eliminated from the second Test due to a lack of
improvement. During their mid-series break, the crew flew to Abu Dhabi with the
man from Somerset. At this point, the management determined that sending him
home to properly heal would be the wisest course of action. His surgery is
scheduled for Tuesday.
“I’m going to have an operation to get the rest of the swelling out
because it’s not budging,” Leach told BBC Radio 5 Live on Saturday.
“It was the second ball of the first innings in the field so that whole
game I was playing with this knee problem.
“I obviously knocked it a few times throughout that game and it has just
created a long period of recovery. I need to get the operation done and then
hopefully I can get back to playing cricket. I’d love to have a run of playing
cricket and getting into a bit of a rhythm again and hopefully that can happen
again once I’ve got this sorted.”
Ben Stokes has made Leach his go-to spinner, and
during his tenure, he has claimed 47 of his 126 wickets. Having participated in
14 of the 22 games since head coach Brendon McCullum came over, he has also
been an essential component of the locker room atmosphere.
The 32-year-old’s 36-cap career has seen numerous setbacks, and this one is
only the most recent. Leach, who has Crohn’s disease, had just returned from
missing the Ashes series last summer because of a back stress fracture.
Additionally, he was unable to play in Stokes’ first Test as permanent captain
in 2022 due to a concussion he suffered in the field on the opening day against
New Zealand at Lord’s.