Post Card from India: `Surgeons, tuk-tuk drivers and Zulu's woes'

All had been going quietly, physio-wise that is, until this morning. Bar Daryll's groin strain that took a little longer to recover for the first test, I thought all our injury worries were a thing of the past. Early tour days are normally laced with niggling injuries which come out of nowhere but then as the tour gathers speed, so the players acclimatize and become used to the rigors of practicing and playing and travelling and injuries seem to taper off. Shopping for bargain buys becomes the order of the day.

That is until this morning; Tuesday morning here in Bangalore when we decided to play a game of two-touch soccer as part of our practice warm-up and Zulu twisted his left ankle.

Every time we play soccer, I come away thanking our cricketing gods that no major injury had occurred. To ask, no to tell players to take it easy on each other is like asking a lion not to go for the kill for its evening meal after not eating for 10 days.

As a physio, you get to know your players after working and living and touring with them for many years. Zulu and I first toured to Sri Lanka on the under 24 tour in 1995 and there I noticed his gritty, rugged nature.

When Zulu walks into the physio room seeking treatment, you know that he's gritted it out for long enough and now he requires some TLC or torturous physio. When he went down this morning, I instinctively knew that he was in a bit of trouble and had injured his ankle badly enough for him to crawl to the sidelines and I'd be working hard to get him fit again, quickly!!!

After assessing and initially icing the ankle, we went off for a pre-cautionary x-ray to check the integrity of the sprained ankle ligament and to ensure nothing was broken.

On the way to the hospital, in the heavy morning traffic of Bangalore, almost every tuk-tuk driver stopped us for an autograph and we managed to avoid at least half a dozen accidents, so keen was our liaison officer to get us to the hotel first and then the hospital on time.

We had terrific service on arrival. The head orthopedic surgeon interrupted his ward rounds and came down to give his opinion and then supervised the x-rays for his ankle. Thereafter, we went down to the physio department and iced the ankle again before strapping it up and heading back to the Chinnaswamy Stadium for Zulu to test it out with some throw-downs.

By evening time it was encouraging that Zulu's ankle hadn't swollen up too much during the day and this is a good sign if he is to be fit to play in the test match on Thursday. We'll have to wait and see.

So what is in store for the next 48 hours; probably round the clock treatment day and night to reduce his pain and swelling and get him on the park. And, sleep, well sleep will take care of itself.