Morne Morkel withdraws from IPL to focus on his international return

Morne Morkel has been in and out of the South African national team for a while now. The only reason of it being the injuries he has suffered from throughout his career. In June of last year, during a One-Day International, he suffered another setback and has been recovering from it until today.

The tall and strong South African pacer felt his back during the ODI and has been sidelined for such a long time after that. Some diagnosis of the doctors even claimed that he won’t be able to play the game of cricket again. That is something very crushing to hear for any sportsman.

“I was told that I would never be able to play cricket again and it was a mental thing to go to the gym. One doctor actually told me that my days as a player were numbered which was not a nice thing to hear,” he said while talking to Times Live during his training for Momentum One-Day Cup; his side Titans play the Dolphins on Friday.

He was focused and strong willed enough to ignore that prognosis and consulted different doctors. But no one was able to come to a conclusion about the injury. He even doubted himself at one point during the injury. “No one was 100% sure of what was going on with my back and to be honest there was a time when I was in doubt about my future‚” he was quoted saying.

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Morkel has now recovered completely as he will look forward to making a comeback in the Test squad for the series against the Black Caps. He has even withdrawn from the Indian Premier League to focus on his fitness as he has last played international cricket in June of 2016.

He is eyeing the England tour later this year and is working ever so hard to make a comeback after the huge setbacks.