International Cricket Update: Tim Paine, Australia's Test captain, is optimistic that he will be healthy for the Ashes series despite undergoing neck surgery lately.
Paine had neck surgery to treat a pinched nerve that kept him from training with Tasmania during the pre-season. The Ashes series will begin on December 8, with the opening match scheduled to take place at Gabba.
'Recovery a slow process': Time Paine
Informing that his recovery would be a slow process Paine said, "So they take them (damaged discs) out, put the new discs in and stitch it back up. It actually feels really, really good except for the front where I've got the cut. I feel like my range is already better and I've just got to make sure the front, where the cut is, heals and I give the disc time to 'take' to the rest of my spine over the next month or so, and then get moving. It's a pretty slow process if I'm totally honest. I'll be (restricted to) walking for the next couple of weeks and doing a lot of little neck physio-type movements just to try and get the smaller muscles in my neck working again".
With the Ashes 2021-22 series approaching in two months, Tim Paine revealed that he did not want to leave the neck to be left untreated which would have jeopardized his participation.
He said "I had the bulging disc pressing in on the nerve canal in the spine, so I was having a few issues down the left side of my body. With it pushing hard on the nerves, you can damage the nerves so I didn't want to have any long-term issues with my left arm in particular. I was losing a lot of strength in my left arm, and getting a lot of nerve pain down the back of my arm and I didn't want that to become anything permanent and if I left it too long, I think there's a chance that it could."