Doubts linger over Donald's fitness

Allan Donald may not be the sort of fast bowler to shirk his responsibilities yet there are serious concerns whether the 32 year-old?s battered left ankle can withstand 50 days of punishing test matches from October 28 until the end of March.

South African team insiders have suggested that the world?s top ranked fast bowler?s eagerness to break the 300th test wicket barrier this season could place his international career in doubt. It has also been strongly hinted that his limited-overs international career could be shortened to save what is left of his test fast bowling capabilities. One possibility is that he may not play in the triangular limited-overs international tournament from late January to early February and which follows South Africa?s test series with England. And he may be recused from playing in the Sharjah tournament after the India tour. As it is, the United Cricket Board declined to play a series of limited overs game in India because of the Sharjah tournament which immediately follows the tour of the Asian sub-continent.

This has emerged only 24 hours after the UCB?s medical panel examined the injured ankle which forced Donald to return a week early from his county duties with Warwickshire.

Although he was cleared by the panel after being examined in Pretoria on Monday, the Bloemfontein fast bowler, who turns 33 five days before the side to play Zimbabwe in the first of two tests, there are still concerns about his long term fitness.

It is known that at his age an operation to his ankle would keep him out for as long as three to four months and his comeback would likely coincide with the tests against England at Cape Town and Centurion in early January. Inflamed scar tissue around the ankle aggravated the problem during the World Cup in June while he was also handicapped at times during last summer?s series against the West Indies. He played in only one limited-overs match in the seven-match series with Brian Lara?s Caribbean tourists. Apart from creating added problems for the new national selection panel, doubts about Donald's long-term fitness capabilities could also place the pace attack plane under pressure. Dr Ali Bacher, the managing director of the United Cricket Board, confirmed the medical panel was of the opinion Donald needed to rest until the SuperSport Series matches started on October 7 when Free State meet Boland in Bloemfontein.

Donald was given a cortisone injection and told play again until early next month. Although the first of the two tests against Zimbabwe, would be in Bloemfontein in the last week in October. But the chances of him breaking down to the extent he would need an operation were very real. The South Africa, Free State and Warwickshire fast bowler needed a further 35 wickets to become the first South African to take 300 at test level.

What is worrying those close to the team is that he was taking a calculated risk to pass the 300 test wickets mark. He took 23 wickets against the West Indies and five in the two tests against New Zealand before he failed a fitness test for the third match of the series at the Basin Reserve in Wellington. While Dr Bacher expressed the hope that Donald would be nursed through the first seven tests of a tough programme, there was no guarantee his fitness would carry him through.