Support Helps Brunt Get Back

by James Skitt - 04.03.08

England seamer Katherine Brunt can’t wait to link up with her England teammates again on their tour of Australia and New Zealand following a year on the sidelines with a back injury.

After months of work with The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and English Institute of Sport (EIS) sports science and medical staff at Loughborough, the 22 year-old passed a fitness test last week and will now join the squad in Sydney where she will finalise her rehabilitation under ECB Women’s Physio Sue Hughes with a view to playing on the second leg of the tour in New Zealand later this month.

“I’m absolutely delighted to be joining the squad” Brunt told eis2win.co.uk. “I’m not one for watching matches so 2007 was a difficult year for me not being able to play any cricket.”

Brunt was named the npower Player of the Series when England won the women’s Ashes in 2005 and was short listed for the ICC Player of the Year in 2006 but suffered a back injury in an npower Test Match against India in August that year. She recovered but broke down again, this time with a prolapsed disc, whilst bowling in the nets ahead of a triangular series in Chennai last February.

“I’d had occasional back problems for a few years but that is not unusual for a fast bowler” she explains. “Eventually I think a mixture of poor technique and over exerting myself triggered the injury and just two days before I was due to fly out to India I broke down in the nets.”

Brunt underwent an intradiscal electro thermal shrinkage procedure in early July to rectify the problem, but admits to finding her time on the sidelines difficult.

“I was very limited in what I could do at first and it felt like such a long time” she says. “I used to be quite heavy when I was younger and had worked quite hard to get my weight down. I seem to put weight on quite easily so I found it really tough to keep it off whilst I was injured.”

“There were times when the injury was hurting and I was down and I’d think I don’t care, I’ll treat myself to this or that, but then you have to tell yourself that you will get back one day and you need to stay healthy.”

Brunt has worked her way back to fitness following a ‘Back to Bowling’ rehabilitation programme designed by ECB Fast Bowling Coach Kevin Shine and ECB Head Physio Craig Ranson, which she has followed under the expert guidance of EIS staff at Loughborough.

“I’ve been treated by EIS Physiotherapist Julie Pearce and also had two sessions a week with EIS Strength and Conditioning Coach Ian Crump” explains Brunt.

“Ian and Julie monitored my sessions closely and worked together with ECB Chief Medical Officer Dr Nick Pearce to advise me on adapting my programme when necessary depending on how I was progressing and what I was capable of” she says.
 
“It’s been really hard work but I’ve had the best support all along the way from the ECB and EIS for which I’m really grateful” she says.

Having proved her fitness, Brunt flies out to Sydney on the 12th February but, despite the temptation, she is determined to follow the advice for her to ease her way back in gradually.

Photography © Getty Images