McDonald: Maxwell 'needs to have a look at what he's doing'

Australia coach Andrew McDonald says star allrounder Glenn Maxwell needs to play his part when it comes to using his rest and recovery periods wisely after he was briefly hospitalised following a night out in Adelaide last Friday.

Maxwell has not played any cricket since Melbourne Stars' last BBL match on January 15. Before Friday's incident in Adelaide, he had already been rested from Australia's three-match ODI series with West Indies as part of his management around his previously broken leg. That meant Maxwell was not due to play again until February 9 when he is set to be part of Australia's T20I side for the three-match series against West Indies.

Maxwell was invited to a golf event in Adelaide and flew from his hometown of Melbourne to play on a very warm Adelaide afternoon. He then went drinking at a pub in the evening where he passed out and was taken to the emergency room of a hospital via ambulance and was later released without being admitted.

McDonald said Maxwell needed to have a look at the choices he was making after the selectors had given him an extra week off to rest before the T20I series.

"I've spoken to Glenn, had a good chat with him yesterday around the incident," McDonald told SEN. "Him looking after himself needs to be a consideration moving forward. We've given him the opportunity to rest and rehab in that period of time and I suppose the lessons for him around that would be to take up his end of the bargain in that space and take care of himself.

"We want to see Glenn Maxwell playing cricket for the next three to four years for Australia. Can he get to the next World Cup in 2027 in South Africa? Who knows. But he's a key player in our white-ball formats. When he is out there we're a far better team and on the back of that horrific injury that he did have, there's going to be some management things that are put in place around him.

"But we want Glenn Maxwell playing for Australia for as long as he can. We're going to have to do our end and Glenn is no doubt going to have to hold up his end of the bargain.

"All the information he's given, he's had a few drinks and clearly the night has ended the way that it did and that's less than ideal from his perspective and our perspective. It's an honest mistake. He needs to obviously have a look at what he's doing at his end and is that the right thing to be doing at that time? Thankfully there's no harm out of it. He's well now.

"That's the other thing to consider in these instances, yes you can point the finger but there's a duty of care from our end and he's doing well and he looks as though he'll return to play in that West Indies series in those T20 games which we're excited for."

McDonald explained that the decision to rest Maxwell from the ODI series was on the back of the incident that had happened in November 2022 when Maxwell broke his leg in a horrific accident at a 50th birthday party. Maxwell himself said he needed "to be a bit smarter" about his management after he had to fly home from the South Africa tour last year due to soreness in his leg. McDonald added it was something he will need to do for the remainder of his career.

"It's a discussion we've had for the last couple of weeks just around where he's at physically, on the back of that major injury he had," McDonald said. "It's well over 12 months ago now. But that injury hasn't allowed him to do the things that he's wanted to do over a period of time and recovery is one of the biggest problems that he has had, pulling up from games. He just started to flag that at the back end of the BBL.

"For those who know one-day international cricket well, it's probably one of the most demanding formats for any player. The amount of speed they have to move at in the field and with the bat. Obviously, Maxwell being a three-dimensional cricketer, we felt it was a prime opportunity just to give him a little bit of a chop out to get ready for the T20s.

"That's going to be an ongoing management problem with Glenn, we believe. We had some good results in the World Cup but also if you think back to before the World Cup, going to South Africa, we had to pull the same lever in terms of managing where his body is at. So it's got to be a consideration for him, how he looks after himself moving forward for the longevity of his career. But we've also got to weigh into that with the way that we manage him and we feel as though this is the best for him at this point in time."

Maxwell had an outstanding ODI World Cup for Australia, however he did miss a game due to concussion after falling off the back of a golf cart.

Meanwhile, uncapped Victoria allrounder Will Sutherland had been called into Australia's ODI squad for the West Indies series as a replacement for injured paceman Nathan Ellis.