England's match-winner Jonny Bairstow wondered if he would ever be able to walk again, let alone get back to the game, after suffering serious injuries while playing golf last August. (More Cricket News)
The injury kept Bairstow out of action for eight months, but on Wednesday he was named in the England squad for the one-off Test against Ireland next month.
Bairstow was at the peak of his powers when the freak leg injury derailed his career. Expectedly, he had huge apprehensions over his future following the incident.
"You wonder whether or not you'll be able to walk again, jog again, run again, play cricket again. Absolutely, those things do go through your mind.
"It depends how long you think about them. There are many different things, until you get back to playing, well… you wonder, is it going to feel the same?" he was quoted as saying by 'ESPNcricinfo'.
He might never "100 per cent" recover from the injury, but Bairstow can live with that.
"It's quite funny, people have said, 'You're limping'. Well, I don't know anyone that's had a major lower leg injury that does walk exactly the same as previously.
"There are going to be little limps, there are going to be aches, pains, that's part and parcel of it. Whether it's knees, hips, ankles, lower back, whatever it is.
"When there's trauma, there's going to be an adaptation to the way that your body moves or your body walks, that's just part and parcel of it. I'm not going to be running exactly the same as last year, but that's okay."
He is also confident that he will be fit enough to keep wickets as well.
"I don't think it's different to fielding - when you're sprinting, changing direction. You're squatting at the stumps and moving laterally, but you're not running at 25ks to the boundary.
"So, it's a different kind of fitness - the old legs and glutes are a bit stiff after that first day in the dirt, but it's part and parcel of it," he added.
