‘At times I wanted to give up’
Shaheen Shah Afridi
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Shaheen Shah Afridi, star Pakistani pacer, talked about his long rehabilitation process after suffering a knee injury in November of last year and said there were times when he wanted to give up.
Shaheen will captain the defending champion Lahore Qalandar in the upcoming PSL 8, which will be his first significant responsibility following the rehabilitation. He is now fully healthy to return to competitive cricket.
The left-arm pacer suffered multiple episodes of a knee injury last year.
He was first left out of action between July and October after picking up the injury during the Sri Lanka Test tour while his latest discomfort came in the final of the 2022 T20 World Cup on November 13.
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“There were times when I wanted to give up. I was working on only one muscle and it was not improving. Often during the rehabilitation sessions, I used to say to myself ‘this is enough, I cannot do this anymore,” Shaheen told PCB Digital.
“But then I used to watch my bowling on YouTube and see how well I had done and that motivated me and I told myself ‘to push a little more’ … It is frustrating for a fast bowler to miss cricket because of an injury.”
While there is never a good time to get hurt, Shaheen's injury occurred just as Pakistan was about to embark on their busiest home season in more than ten years, which included seven Twenty20 Internationals, three Test matches against England, and then two Tests and three One-Day Internationals against New Zealand. Shaheen sat out all 15 contests.
“It is tough when you miss your home games because of the injury. Before our Test home season, I even missed the seven England T20Is. I was more distressed for missing the Tests, because I like Test cricket more. A bowler is measured on how he performs in Test cricket and I wanted to take wickets against England” he added.
