KL Rahul suffered the shoulder injury at a worst possible time. The Karnataka batsman had cemented his spot in the Test team after a starring role in the Border-Gavaskar series where he had scored six half-centuries in 4 Tests and would have wanted to carry on the same form in the Indian Premier League and the Champions Trophy.
However, a cruel shoulder injury dashed his hopes as he not only missed the entire Indian Premier League but also the Champions Trophy which would have been his first ICC tournament. But fortunately, the four-month injury layoff did not hamper Rahul’s form as the right-handed batsman scored a half century in his comeback match. He scored 54 off just 58 balls against on the first day of the 2-day practise game against Sri Lanka Board President’s XI on Friday (July 21). And although the 25-year old made a pretty good comeback, he revealed the journey to regain the full fitness while sitting on the sidelines was not easy for him.
“Rehab basically for me is possibly the most boring thing you can ever do. Just wake up every morning and to do the same boring thing, again and again, is quite tiring and it starts to get to you. You start questioning yourself, asking yourself if you really want to do all these boring things. You chose a sport that is exciting and challenges you every day and here you are, waking up and doing boring things,” he said after the first day’s play.
“That was the biggest challenge for me but I woke up and there was something that pushed me to go to the gym, go to the physio, go through the painful process, needling and then pushing my shoulder. It was quite tough but it is part of a sportsman’s life and part of our career. It’s good that things like this happened to me early and I am hoping for an injury-free career going forward,” he added.
The Indian batting star further revealed he made a return to the field earlier than expected after a disciplined rehabilitation and the eagerness to don the national jersey again.
“The surgeon and the physio were really happy that I could come back in three months. They were expecting me to come back a lot later but I did pay a lot of attention to my rehab. I was very disciplined and very eager to get back to the team as soon as I can. I didn’t want to miss out on any more matches,” he said.