Promising young batsman Ricardo Vasconcelos is hoping a return to the nets isn’t far away, following a season ending ankle injury in July.
Vasconcelos was enjoying somewhat of a dream season, registering 750 runs in the Specsavers County Championship before a freak injury in the warm-up ended his 2019 campaign. After successful surgery with the club’s Chief Medical Officer Bill Ribbans, Vasconcelos has been working with Head Physio Barry Goudriaan and is happy with his recovery so far.
“It’s coming on slowly but I’m getting there, just getting the strength back and getting my movement back.” Vasconcelos said.
“I’m progressing more, doing a lot more stuff in the pool and gym. It’s just about getting strength back before everyone else gets back so I can be on par with everyone else.”
Barry Goudriaan was pleased with the progress the young South African was making.
“Surgery can be really invasive so it was a slow start but everything’s settled now, he’s back in the gym and picking up his strength to where he left off. Obviously coming out of a cast there was quite a bit of muscle wastage but we’re nearly back to how it was before.” he said.
“He’s still off-feet with his cardio, so no-impact stuff, he’s doing pool work to get his running mechanics going and hopefully in the next couple of weeks after his final consultation with Bill we’ll get to do some proper running work. I’m happy all round and hopefully when the boys come back he can pick up a bat again.”
After 3 months watching from the sidelines, including seeing the side secure promotion to Division 1, Vasconcelos was eager to get padded up and batting again.
“This is the longest I’ve been out and it’s really frustrating, hopefully in the next couple of weeks I can get back in the nets and on the bowling machine to get back into it. I’m going a bit mad not being able to do anything but it’s a long process and I’m getting there.” he said.
“You want to be out there no matter how the boys are doing, it actually does make it a bit easier when they are doing well because you don’t feel as bad. I mean, they won every game without me in the Champo so maybe I shouldn’t play anyway?”