Warm-up to be reviewed after Denly hobbles off
ENGLAND captain Andrew Strauss says his side may now consider banning playing football as a warm-up after Joe Denly became the second injury casualty in the space of a month.
Kent opener Denly hurt his left knee in a collision with team-mate Owais Shah on the outfield at The Oval yesterday ahead of today’s one-day international with Australia.
Denly was rushed to hospital for a scan to determine the extent of the injury but the 23-year-old is now a major doubt for today’s clash, and maybe even beyond.
The incident came just four weeks after wicketkeeper Matt Prior suffered a back spasm playing football in the build-up to the fourth Ashes Test at Headingley, prompting Strauss to explain the reason behind the pre-match routine.
“The reason we’ve played football in the past is because it’s something the guys enjoy and it’s a good way of getting the blood flowing,” he said.
“We feel that, if it’s played sensibly, the chance of someone getting injured is very slight. Unfortunately it’s happened today and if people are going to get injured playing it, then we’ll have to have a look at it. Up until this stage we’ve never had anyone missing any cricket through playing it, but this looks as if he Denly might well miss tomorrow’s game at the least.
“You’d like to think the players would be sensible enough in the warm-up not to take it too far – I think they did today and so we are definitely going to have to look at it.
“When we do play football in the morning we have a ‘no tackling’ rule but I’m not sure it was heeded today.”