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It being October, I have a few aches and pains relating to cricket that nudge me as it gets colder.
Without getting graphic or sharing photos - I couldn’t do that to you, dear readers - I have a common toe ailment relating to repeated slamming over decades.
Meet DragonToe
Fast bowlers - and I use the term loosely in my case - can find their toe gets a hammering from where the front foot lands at the crease.
It either gets smashed in a cricket shoe or a hole is cut in the footwear to allow breathing room - a solution that never seemed to work.
We affectionately call this ‘DragonToe’ in our household as the nail is more akin to a creature from Game of Thrones than a forty-something ex-club cricketer.
A tumble at Kilburn
The second prevailing reminder of a former life bowling hundreds of overs a summer is grumbling ribs. As winter beckons, the mild pain takes me back to a chastening tumble in North London.
I was transporting my cricket bag from Teddington across the capital to North West London at the end of a season. Making the steep climb up to the road at Kilburn underground station, I slipped and bounced down a long flight of stairs in a flailing cartwheel of arms and legs.
My cricket bag might even have followed and thumped me for good measure as I lay bruised and groaning. Passers-by did enquire as to my general health and, it transpired from a hospital scan, I had broken ribs.
For some reason, it always reminds me of the bouncing pram scene in The Untouchables film, down the marble staircase at Union Station in Chicago.
If you’ve ever injured your ribs, there is no quick remedy, they heal of their own accord and just gripe, niggle, mutter and make their feelings known for months - or in my case, decades.
Golfer’s elbow (without the golf)
Last but not least is a cross-sports injury.
While still bowling in my twenties, I was diagnosed with ‘golfer’s elbow’ or medial epicondylitis. The tendons on the inner side of the elbow hurt alot - as if I were running my fingers over an electric fence.
I managed the shooting pains with bandages, painkillers and an attempt to adapt my action - by bowling slower. Something that came naturally anyway, particularly after a reasonably long spell!
When that did nothing, I had physio sessions where a mild electric current was passed through my elbow to get fingers twitching and to aid recovery.
It helped enough to continue bowling but without a huge amount of joy; a plaster over a bigger problem caused by over-use.
An operation years later in Leeds happily brought back the ability to bowl pain-free, a novel concept I thought had passed me by.
Over to you: what's your cricket injury?
What injuries have defined your cricket? Do you have any funny stories as to how they happened? Feel free to bypass any gory details - but we all pick up scrapes, knocks and tweaks.
Do you have a can of muscle spray rattling around your bag next to your pads? A pre-match routine to prep your body for the trials and tribulations ahead?
Leave a comment below (if you're a Free member) or give your thoughts over on our Facebook page.
Yours in health and creaking joints, JF.
