HUGHES_INJURY_NEWS_09SEP93

From Brisbane's "The Courier-Mail", September 9 1993: MELBOURNE: The Test cricket career of Ashes hero Merv Hughes is in doubt after a routine knee operation uncovered a hidden disaster area. The fast bowler is expected to miss the international summer after surgeons discovered a large area of dead bone in his right knee. What was meant to be a swift clean-up became a major procedure when an arthroscopy revealed Hughes had ground through the cartlidge and had been bowling bone on bone. The constant pounding without shock absorption left the joint vulnerable to chipping and killed of an area of bone slightly larger than a 20 cent piece. (Rob: that's a circle of about an inch in diameter.) He has been ordered off the knee for six weeks and ruled out of any form of cricket at least until the New Year. If Hughes were to follow medical advice he would have less than four weeks and one Sheffield Shield match to find form and fitness in time for the last Test of the Australian summer on January 28. To come back any sooner would be to risk more serious damage to what doctors regard as a 'fairly serious chronic disability'. Thanks to Roberto McMillan on r.s.c.