Steven Smith feels ‘pretty normal’ after cortisone shot for wrist injury

Steven Smith received a cortisone injection to help him overcome the wrist tendon injury he suffered during the Ashes and is hopeful he can play pain-free during the World Cup.

Smith was injured during the Lord’s Test and was hampered for the rest of the series before being ruled out of the white-ball tour of South Africa.

He had initially worn a splint, but that did not solve the problem, so he resorted to the injection and was able to bat in the nets again last week before flying to India for the three-match ODI series leading up to the World Cup. . .

“I was in a brace for a couple of weeks, just trying to limit movement, but once I took it off, to be honest, it didn’t make a huge difference,” Smith said. Nine newspapers at a promotional event in Sydney. “Then they gave me cortisone last Thursday, and that made a big difference. So I’ve had a couple of hitting sessions now and I feel pretty normal.”

Smith said the pain was often worse when the bat twisted in his hands, but since the injection he hasn’t felt any discomfort.

“The other day I hit a couple of balls in the nets and my bat got sharp, and I thought, ‘oh, that hurt before’ and it didn’t hurt anymore,” he said. “So that’s really positive, and I feel like I can make all my shots and I don’t feel any pain.”

With Travis Head now a major injury doubt for the World Cup after suffering a broken hand at Centurion, Smith could find himself in his favorite No. 3 position amid rumors that initial plans had been for him to drop a place to accommodate a powerful- filled the top three with Head, David Warner and Mitchell Marsh.

“I think I average 55 on three, or something like that, so that’s definitely my preferred spot. But I’ll do what the team needs,” he said. “In white-ball cricket, you’d love to bat as high as you can, so we’ll see what they want to do.”

The three ODIs in India will be important for several Australian World Cup teams to get going after missing the games in South Africa. Like Smith, Pat Cummins (wrist), Mitchell Starc (groin) and Glenn Maxwell (ankle and paternity leave) have yet to see game time in the run-up to the tournament.

Cameron Green, meanwhile, missed most of the series in South Africa after suffering a concussion in the opening match in Bloemfontein, while Ashton Agar only featured in that game before being unable to play due to pain and then flying home. for the birth of his son. Agar is not expected to return to the team until the World Cup warm-up matches after the India series, where Australia will face the Netherlands on September 30 and Pakistan on October 3.

They begin their campaign in the tournament against India, in Chennai, on October 8.