Stress fractures: The thorn in England’s side strikes again – is there a solution?

Ashes preparations had already been dominated by fitness concerns, but England were dealt a further blow when Jack Leach was ruled out of the series with a back stress fracture.

Both James Anderson and Ollie Robinson were rested for the only Test match leading into the series against Ireland, but at least when it comes to the seam attack, England have depth.

Jack Leach has played every Test match under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum and it remains to be seen how he will be replaced in the team. The only other spinners to have featured in the ‘Bazball’ era - Will Jacks and Rehan Ahmed - was in the more turn-friendly conditions in Pakistan.

There were already questions over whether Jofra Archer will ever return to the field in an England shirt again and Stokes has a problematic left knee of his own, so the Leach injury has certainly thrown a spanner in the works as far as plans were concerned.

Northamptonshire strength and conditioning coach Chris Lorkin explains how for bowlers, pre-season starts almost as soon as the previous one ends to prevent injury.

“It’s such an unnatural movement isn’t it [bowling]? I’m not sure if you got someone off the street to come and do that movement pattern they would know what had hit them the next day,” Lorkin said.

“So, the loads and the forces that are going through parts of these guys’ bodies are massive, especially at this level.”

He added: “We’re lucky enough to have a long pre-season.

“Pre-season starts in November, so we’ve got a good five months to get the guys up and ready for the start of that April season and even a bit longer with the Blast starting into late May, so we’re fortunate enough that we’ve got that time-period to increase their robustness and make sure they’re ready to go and really firing on all cylinders.”

A number of England internationals, including Robinson, Archer, Saqib Mahmood and Jamie Overton have all spent time out of the game due to stress fractures in their back.

open image in gallery

It is a problem that seems endemic in English cricket at the moment, and no one seems to quite have the solution.

“Obviously Covid was in one way helpful and in one way a hindrance,” Lorkin said from his experience with Northamptonshire.

“We only had a short season that year when the prep was all on them at home with the support remotely and we only had to get them through two months and 10 Blast games and four red-ball games.

“In terms of the development for more of the younger guys, they missed the full season of cricket that would help them get through seasons more recently.

“We’ve kind of been lucky, but we’ve been meticulous in our planning at the club over the years. I’ve been at the club now for nearly six seasons and we haven’t seen that many in terms of stress fractures really.

“I think the intensity of the game creeping up year on year and franchise cricket being played all around the world – these calibres of athletes and the intensity that they play at are more susceptible to those type of injuries.

“So we’ve got one that we’re managing at the moment to be fair. He’s had a stress response in his back, luckily we’ve caught it early enough, so hopefully his time out won’t be too long.

“If we can catch something early enough then hopefully that minimises their time off on the park.”

While not a solution, with the prospect of a jam-packed schedule in the following years, England will hope they can have the same fortune in identifying injuries early, before they find themselves short of fast-bowling options.