'Shoaib should be fit for England tour,' says team trainer

Shoaib Akhtar, the Pakistan fast bowler, has a realistic chance of making a strong comeback from his stress fracture and knee injuries for the tour of England, starting in late June, according to the trainer of the Pakistan team, Murray Stevenson.

Stevenson, a South African, said he was confident that if Shoaib strictly followed the training regimen and rehabilitation programme he would recover from his injuries in two months' time. "A stress fracture normally takes around six to eight weeks to heal," he said, "while he has been told he can make a full recovery from his knee problem in the same period. Two months is enough time for him to make a recovery for the England tour."

Shoaib, one of Pakistan's top bowlers with 165 Test and 199 one-day wickets, has missed the tour to Sri Lanka owing to fitness problems. He returned recently from Melbourne after undergoing surgery to remove floating bodies from his knees and is also recovering from a stress fracture of the ankle bone.

Stevenson said Shoaib's injuries were not unexpected given the heavy workload on bowlers these days. "You look elsewhere, Glenn McGrath, Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan, Steve Harmison, Chaminda Vaas, Shane Bond -- they all have their own niggling problems from time to time. Our bowlers are not an exception."

He pointed out that they were two ways to look at the increasing number of matches players are expected to play these days. "The coaches feel the more they play the more fitter they should get but the body needs time to recover and get over niggling injuries and players are playing a lot of cricket these days."

He also pointed out that if Shoaib followed his rehabilitation programme properly, which he is doing at the moment in Pakistan, he would make a full recovery for the England trip. "He has got time and the good thing is that both injuries will heal in the same period of time."