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Proteas manager and team doctor Mohammed Moosajee has full confidence that veteran fast bowler Dale Steyn will be fit in time to take his place at the Cricket World Cup, after yet another one of his growing list of injuries.
Steyn’s bowling shoulder, which recently kept him out of the game for a couple of years, sent ripples of apprehension through the South African cricketing public when it flared up and prevented him from honouring the Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Indian Premier League (IPL) fixture against the Kings XI Punjab this week.
The injury was diagnosed as an inflammation in the 35-year-old’s shoulder and has curtailed his IPL season just two games after he joined the Challengers as a replacement. But Moosajee is confident that the Proteas’ medical team should get him ready for the World Cup next month.
“Dale has just arrived back today [Friday] from India,” said Moosajee. “He will see a specialist this weekend and then a plan will be put in place to get him ready by the time we meet up for the camp on May 12. He’s had a scan already in India; this is just a follow-up with the specialist.
“At the moment it is just a flare-up or what they call an inflammation. Once he’s had a formal assessment and a management plan is in place by the shoulder specialist, along with physiotherapy and rehab, we are confident that in three weeks he should be able to partake in the World Cup.”
With his injury, Steyn becomes another player in the Proteas’ 15-man World Cup squad with an asterisk next to his name. The others are batsman JP Duminy and fast bowlers Lungi Ngidi and Anrich Nortje, who were named in the squad despite carrying niggles.
Read: Nortje's óvernight success'story with World Cup selection
Duminy has to strengthen the shoulder he injured late last year; Ngidi is recovering from a side strain; and Nortje is nursing the shoulder that prevented him from taking up his first IPL contract with the Kolkata Knight Riders.
“The three had joined up with the SA Academy in Potchefstroom but because of inclement weather, were unable to play against the Afghanistan Academy. If today’s weather holds, Anrich was supposed to play. Lungi and JP were meant to play two days ago, but the weather didn’t allow. But they are coming along; they just need game time.”
Duminy did play for the Cobras in the Cricket SA T20 Challenge, making 29 in his side’s six-wicket defeat by the Highveld Lions.
Attempts to get hold of convenor of selectors Linda Zondi to ascertain who the likely replacements would be for the four players, were they to regress or fail to recover, proved futile as several calls to him went unanswered.
