South Africa fast-bowler Morne Morkel has revealed he was told by a doctor his days as a player were numbered.
The 32-year-old, whose last appearance for the Proteas came in June 2016, had been battling a back injury he sustained in July last year. Since then, the pacer has played one first-class match for his franchise, Titans, in October, and was in the squad for the tour of Australia, where he played in three warm-up matches but not in Tests.
He was set to make a comeback to the cricket field for Northerns on January 22 to prove his fitness for getting a place in the team for the third T20I against Sri Lanka but suffered a recurrence of symptoms which delayed his desperate wait to return to action.
He is currently preparing with his franchise Titans for the opening match of the Momentum One-Day Cup against the Dolphins on Friday (February 17)‚ but disclosed that he was fearing the worst during his injury lay-off.
“No one was 100% sure of what was going on with my back and to be honest there was a time when I was in doubt about my future‚” Morkel told Times Live.
“I was told that I would never be able to play cricket again and it was a mental thing to go to the gym. One doctor actually told me that my days as a player were numbered which was not a nice thing to hear,” he added.
Having missed the majority of matches last season, Morkel sounded excited on the prospect of returning to action.
“I am very excited about getting the opportunity to play again – it has been three long months of rehabilitation. The most important thing is not to put myself under pressure. I just need to find my feet and rhythm,” he said.
Speaking over his fitness and future plans, he said:
“I have been throwing the ball nicely‚ I am comfortable and my body just needs to get cricket fitness again with all the rehabilitation that I have been doing over the past couple of months.
“I will play in the next three Momentum ODI matches and see how it goes. It will be wrong of me to put any goals or anything like that about my return to action. I just want to go out there on the field and do what I enjoy the most‚ which is bowling and find my feet again without any high expectations,” he concluded.