Trescothick surgery hits Somerset title hopes

By Richard Latham

Marcus Trescothick faces at least six weeks on the sidelines after scans on his injured right ankle revealed that he needs to undergo immediate surgery.

The devastating blow to Somerset's LV County Championship title hopes follows their skipper turning his ankle when chasing a ball to the boundary during the match against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge. Trescothick met up with his consultant back at Taunton and was told he needed surgery to repair some tendons.

Brian Rose, the Somerset director of cricket, said: “Following a talk between Marcus and his consultant it became apparent that to further his playing career he needs to have an operation immediately. I have been told that realistically Marcus is going to be away from the game for six to seven weeks, depending on the success of the operation and of course his recovery.”

Rose added: “I think that there are two ways of looking at this situation. Marcus is one of the best, if not the best batsman in the country and of course he is going to be a loss to the side.

"But we went into the Nottinghamshire game, for example, without Vernon Philander and people tended to write us off straight away. Iin fact, we played very well.
 
"What has been impressive about the Somerset side in the first three games has been their application to the job in adverse circumstances and we have been really been unlucky not to have won a second game. At Nottingham we were beaten by the weather and with a bit of luck we could have won against Warwickshire.

“What I have been really pleased about is that it doesn’t matter who has played or who has been injured. The application and the character of the team has been excellent. We have a quite a few talented cricketers on our books, a lot of them are youngsters and it’s a great opportunity for one of them to step forward."

With last season's vice-captain Alfonso Thomas away playing in the IPL, James Hildreth is expected to take over from Trescothick as skipper.



Date: 23/04/2012 20:49:39 by Richard Latham
In: Today | Somerset |