Daily Times

LAHORE: Pakistan star pacer Shaheen Afridi’s recovery from a knee injury has made encouraging progress, with expectations that he will be fit enough to play for Pakistan at the T20 World Cup in Australia. Afridi is recovering from a ligament injury to his right knee sustained while fielding during the first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle in July. On Thursday he was included in Pakistan’s squad for the global tournament, but not for the preceding T20I series against England or the tri-series in New Zealand. Afridi has been out of action since that injury as questions have been raised about how the board has handled his rehabilitation. He travelled with the team to the Netherlands for a three-match ODI series in August, in the hopes that that he would recover with on-tour rehab. That didn’t pan out as expected, as swelling on his knee started to get worse in the Netherlands and the PCB announced then that he would be out for 4-6 weeks.

But he was kept with the squad as they travelled to the UAE for the Asia Cup as another attempt was made to get his rehab going. But medical scans and reports confirmed a posterior cruciate ligament injury and it was eventually decided that he would travel to the UK for further rehab and work with doctors on the PCB medical panel, Doctor Zafar Iqbal and Dr Imtiaz Ahmed. Afridi recently put out a video on social media of him working out at the gym. The next step in his recovery is to start running and the plan is that he starts bowling again around the first week of October. He is expected to join the Pakistan side in Brisbane on October 15 ahead of the start of the T20 World Cup. That progress has come, however, amid more indications of how problematic the rehabilitation has become. On Thursday, former captain Shahid Afridi — whose daughter Shaheen is engaged to — revealed on Pakistan’s Sama TV that the fast bowler had flown out to England on his own expense. “He has flown out to the UK on his own ticket, he is staying there on his own money, I arranged a doctor for him there, he contacted him there, the PCB is not doing anything in all this,” Shahid Afridi said. “As far as I know he is doing everything about staying there and coordination with doctors.” That version has been confirmed to the scribe by sources familiar with the situation.