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‘Fakhar Zaman understood the risks’: Pakistan team doctor explains batter’s injury situation in T20 World Cup 2022
With Fakhar Zaman expected to miss out on Pakistan's upcoming T20 World Cup match vs South Africa, the team's doctor explained the batter's injury situation.
With Fakhar Zaman expected to miss out on Pakistan's must-win T20 World Cup 2022 fixture against South Africa, many fans and experts have criticised the PCB for risking the batter, who further worsened his knee injury, which had originally ruled him out. He was added late to Babar Azam's T20 World Cup squad, replacing Usman Qadir. Zaman missed the defeats vs India and Zimbabwe, but featured during the win vs Netherlands. Against the Dutch, he registered 20 off 16 balls, but also further aggravated his injury.
Speaking to ESPNcricinfo, Pakistan team doctor Najeebullah Soomro explained the situation and revealed that they understood the risks of bringing Fakhar into the tournament. He said, "Obviously with any knee injury it takes time to have 100% recovery."
"Fakhar and the team understood the risks of coming into the tournament and we got him in. You saw how he performed with batting in the last match, unfortunately in the last match he had a bit of a twist which aggravated his injury."
"We were aware of the risks of the comeback. He is obviously an important player for the team. The player, the medical staff and the team management were aware of that. We decided to bring him back in. In cricket, and any sport, we take risks. Sometimes they pay off, sometimes they don't", he further added.
Soomro also commented on the fitness of pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi. "There's medical fitness, then in matches you need to have a different form of performance attributes", he said.
“From a medical point of view we were confident he was completely fit. You can see how he's improving every single game…from our point of view we are very confident with how he's going. In my view, the medical team, the specialists in involved, have all worked really hard with him, day and night, and from a medical point of view we are confident he's back in full flow,” he added. Pakistan face South Africa on Thursday at the SCG in Sydney, and will need to win the game to keep their tournament hopes alive.
