Pacer Mashrafee bin Murtaza suffered yet another injury, in his right knee, when he was playing for his club, Abahani, in the Dhaka Premier League against Bangladesh Krira Sikkha Pratishthan in the BKSP ground on Tuesday.
Mashrafee collapsed on the crease after facing just one ball when his non-striking partner Farhad Hossain did not respond to his call for a run and sent him back. He limped off the ground and was immediately taken to Apollo Hospitals in Dhaka where he was examined by orthopaedic consultant and knee specialist M Ali.
An initial X-Ray and MRI report detected a partial tear in his reconstructed anterior cruciate ligament, one of the four major ligaments in the knee, said Manirul Amin, a Bangladesh Cricket Board physician, who accompanied him to the hospital.
‘We will wait for the final report which is due tomorrow before deciding the next course of action. We will also consult orthopaedic surgeon David Young in Melbourne,’ a BCB statement quoted Amin as saying on Tuesday.
Young had performed arthroscopic surgery on both the knees of Mashrafee in August 2009 after he had been injured in the right knee during the first Test against the West Indies at St Vincent in July 2009.
National team physio Michael Henry, who is now holidaying in Australia, will also consult with Young, if required, the BCB officials said.
Mashrafee, who has had several surgeries in both his knees, had his ankle twisted only in October when he collapsed in his bowling run-up during the first one-day international against New Zealand.
He returned to international cricket only this month with the home series against Zimbabwe but doctors are not certain how long he might need to recover from the latest blow.
‘Normally this kind of injury takes more than two weeks to heal. We will be able to tell the exact duration of his recovery after getting the MRI report,’ Amin told New Age.
MASHRAFEE INJURY TIMELINE
2001: Suffers a rib injury in a tour of New Zealand.
2003: Returns from South Arica after spraining his ankle during the World Cup in February.
2003: Suffers a knee injury during a Test match against England at Chittagong in November.
2005: Returns from Sri Lanka without playing a match for an ankle injury.
2009: Returns from West Indies after injuring his knee in his first match as Test captain.
2010: Twists his ankle during the first one-day international against
New Zealand
in Dhaka in October.
2010: Partially tears his ligament during a Dhaka Premier League match at the BKSP in December.
