Lasith Malinga likely to miss England tour due to knee injury

Sri Lanka Cricket’s doctors have confirmed a “substantial injury” to ace bowler Lasith Malinga’s left knee after the bowler was ruled out of the World T20 last month.

Malinga injured his knee during the West Indies’ tour to Sri Lanka in November 2015. Since then he has played just one game, that against the UAE in the Asia Cup. Recurring problems to his knee enforced him to miss the remainder of Asia Cup and was subsequently ruled out of the World T20 as well.

Much to the disappointment of his fans, the fast bowler was also ruled out of the IPL 2016. Now the doctors have confirmed a bone bruise, a ‘substantial injury’, that can make the bowler miss out on touring England and Australia. For now, it appears that the bone bruise will rule Malinga out of the forthcoming tour of England, at least. The limited-overs leg of Sri Lanka’s tour of England begins in June.

Although a surgery in not required, Malinga is advised to take complete rest for next couple of months. The doctors have confirmed that the injury requires rest and periodic reassessment.

“Malinga is suffering from a stress reaction in the knee,” said SLC medical committee chairman Dr. Harindu Wijesinghe. “This has been caused by pressure being put on the knee. There is a chance that a stress reaction could worsen to a stress fracture, at which point he would need surgery,” he added.

Dr. Wijesinghe stressed that the number of months Malinga will be out of action is still unknown and cannot be predicted.

“A few doctors have been advising Malinga, and we feel that he needs to rest his knee while undergoing physiotherapy and strengthening,” Wijesinghe said. “Only after seeing how the injury reacts to this, will we be able to say how long he might be unavailable. It might be a number of months before we decide to scan and test him again. It’s difficult to put a time frame on his recovery,” Wijesinghe commented further.

After the England tour, Sri Lanka also had ODI and T20 series against Australia scheduled for August, but Malinga appears in doubt for those series as well.

It is worth noting that it was a similar knee injury in 2009, that had prompted Malinga to call it quits in Test cricket at a young age of 27.

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