Football is out for me, says Burns
England batsman counts cost of injury in warm-up Opener would ‘happily bat at three’ on return
Rory Burns has vowed that his football days are a thing of the past after injuring himself before England’s second Test against South Africa in early January.
The opening batsman will be watching the Sri Lanka Test series next month on television as he continues his recovery from a triple ankle-ligament tear suffered during a kickabout at Newlands the day before the Cape Town Test – an injury that sidelined him for four months.
Football was subsequently banned by the England management and counties are expected to follow suit this summer, deeming the risk outweighs the team bonding benefits.
For Burns, the injury has put on hold a Test career that was starting to blossom after he backed up his maiden hundred against Australia last summer with a century in New Zealand before the South Africa tour. He intends to go on Surrey’s pre-season trip to Dubai next month and is confident of being fit for their opening County Championship match against Somerset at the Oval on April 19.
“It’s taken four months out of my career and at a stage when I had got myself to where I was playing quite nicely. It was an avoidable setback,” he said.
“When you get something that’s avoidable like that you probably re-evaluate what you want to waste your time doing in terms of four months in a gym rehabbing or being on a plane to Sri Lanka, so from that aspect, while I am still a professional cricketer, I probably won’t play football again.”
Trevor Bayliss wanted to ban football, but backed down when he realised how much the players enjoyed it and did not want to risk upsetting morale. The players took it so seriously they had their own fantasy league, trading each other for imaginary transfer fees. But, inevitably, it became competitive and tackles started to get a little heavier.
Ashley Giles had banned it when in charge of Warwickshire and Lancashire, but allowed it to continue with England even after Jonny Bairstow hurt his ankle in Sri Lanka and missed two Tests.
Giles acted after Burns caught his spikes in the turf after an innocuous-looking tackle from Joe Root. “If it’s the catalyst to put things right and maybe say you don’t need football and instead keep the boys on the park, it’s probably a good thing in a weird way,” said Burns.
In Burn’s absence, Zak Crawley and Dom Sibley showed promise as an opening pair, putting on England’s first century stand for three years in Johannesburg.
Burns will come straight back into the side when fit again for the Test series against West Indies in June. It is a question of where he bats; if Sibley and Crawley continue to grow in Sri Lanka, then No3 is a possibility. Joe Denly is playing for his Test career in Sri Lanka and could be the one to make way for Burns. “If they said ‘Rory, we want you to bat three’, I wouldn’t say no. But ideally I’d bat one and face the first ball as I like to get in amongst it. But if they said bat three then I’d happily do that, too,” he said.
“Guys competing for places is only going to raise the level of output they are trying to produce. Those guys have got the opportunities. From my point of view, nothing has changed from what I have always known I have to do.
“You get judged on your runs and your output, so I need to go back [at the] start of the season, score runs for Surrey, tick all my captaincy boxes there and that will only lead to hopefully getting my chances back in the Test arena.”