Taskin's injury takes a troublesome turn
Taskin Ahmed has been going through an unpleasant phase due to a back injury. The Bangladesh paceman has recently revealed it through a Facebook status update where he wrote that he can't get out of his bed due to backache.
BCB’s senior physician Dr. Debashis Chowdhury is currently in a worrisome situation because of the puzzling state of the injury, which is not being affected by “conservative measurements”.
“Taskin's back injury is related to (spinal) disc. The big problem here is that nothing can be predicted about it. Even if it’s okay today, nothing can be told about what will happen in future.
“What happened to him is, he has practiced well for two-three days, but then the pain increased again. Disc-related problems are like this. It goes through both good and bad phases. It is difficult to have a long-term plan for players with such injuries,” said Debashis.
The injury of the seamer currently does not require a surgery. However, Debashis Chowdhury has opted for another solution in-between rehab and surgery, and that is injection. Previously, another Bangladesh cricketer Abul Hasan had also taken injections in the primary stage of his back injury, but underwent a surgery later.
“From is MRI (report), it is clear that the problem in his waist hasn’t reached that level of extremeness where it would require a surgery. But conservative management also hasn’t been effective.
“It's not recovering through physiotherapy or rehab. We’ll have opt for an alternative and that could be injection. We’ll give an injection in a couple of days. It has to be given in the spinal cord and that requires some special arrangements,” said the senior physician.
“The injection will work for the time being, but it’s not a long-term solution. However, he will be able to play. The permanent solution for it (the injury) is surgery. As I said earlier, Taskin's injury hasn’t reached the stage where it would require a surgery,” he added.
One of the complications of this injury is, even surgeries can’t guarantee full recovery. According to Debashis, many pacers have this problem, but some of them undergo surgeries.
“Many pacers have this injury,” he said. “Very few of them have to undergo surgery. Even surgeries can’t guarantee hundred percent success.”
The physician said that Taskin can only play limited-over games once he recovers from the injury. He might start playing longer-versions later, but for now, it would only worsen the situation.
“Even if he returns to action he will have to play ODIs, or T20Is. Playing longer versions would increase the pain,” he opined.
Taskin was axed from the central contract list last month and has also been left out of the T20I squad ahead of the Tigers’ series against Afghanistan. How he tackles the on and off field issues will now decide his future in the national side.
