LEACH FITS THE ILL Jack raring to go after Testing run
JACK LEACH had the winter from hell with injury and illness – and looking back he wonders whether he also contracted coronavirus without being aware at the time.
Now the England spinner is hoping for a late blast of summer cricket and the chance to put his Test career back on course.
Living in a bio-secure bubble for a few weeks while England play the West Indies will be fine for Leach – even the protocol where players eat at separate single tables in what feels like a school exam room.
“It’s great to start training again and play some cricket and my aim is to bring the best of myself to the England set-up,” he said.
Leach wants to look forward – and things can only get better after a nightmare period amid the winter tours of New Zealand, South Africa and Sri Lanka.
He is already having to cope with Crohn’s disease, an inflammatory bowel problem and has suffered a series of setbacks.
“In New Zealand I went down with food poisoning,” he said. “That progressed quite dramatically through a 12-hour period into a sort of sepsis. I was in a very bad way.
“I got some great medical help, came through and then a week later we went to South Africa. Looking back, that was a very tough ask. With all the travel I picked up this cough, temperature and just felt shattered.
“If you had the symptoms now you’d be thinking, ‘This is definitely coronavirus.’
“I guess we’ll never know. I struggled with that and there was a team bug going around. Obviously, I caught that because I catch everything. I lost a lot of weight there and it was decided the best thing was to go home and build gradually for Sri Lanka.
“Two weeks before that I had little tear in my calf. But I managed to get myself right for Sri Lanka, got out there – then the pandemic came and we were sent home.”
Leach is smiling as he talks, as confident as he can be that it’s all history. It’s also little wonder that he doesn’t mind the restrictions of the England bubble.
“I feel healthy now and fit and just want to stay that way,” said the Somerset star.
“I feel quite safe in a bio-secure environment.”
That’s a happy understatement.
“It takes a bit of getting used to,” he said. “And it’s definitely more strict than Bournemouth beach!
“I’ve brought a coffee machine, a few books, and I watched Liverpool win the Premier League which was good. I’m rooming next to Jofra Archer and he was straight on to gaming. Wow, it was loud. You can hear him shouting at people telling them they are rubbish.
“With meals like breakfast you are at individual tables – it feels like when you were doing your exams at school and you were all in a row. That’s a bit weird.”
Leach, 29, has played 10 Test matches so far and 34 wickets is a decent haul.
There was also the incredible innings of just a single to help Ben Stokes create Ashes legend at Headingley last summer. He believes there is much more to come.
“I guess lockdown gives you a lot of time to reflect on what’s been and what’s to come,” he said.
“I feel like I haven’t brought my best to England yet and I have been working out mentally how to go about things.
“My body feels fresh and I want to play cricket as long as possible, to the highest standard possible.
“I want to be bowling out teams on the last day of a Test match. That’s what I want to be remembered for – although it’s going to be hard because everyone always talks about Headingley.”
DAILY STAR SUNDAY, June 28, 2020