BACK FROM THE BRINK

“I’VE PRETTY much been plagued by my back since I was a kid. At 17, playing in a junior carnival, I felt a bit of pain, but as a teenager you don’t think much of it and you keep going. After that I was playing some front-yard cricket with a mate. I bowled a ball and basically locked up. I could barely move. The next day I had a scan, which showed a stress fracture in my lower back – at L3 – and I was in a brace for six months.

I came back and played my first game of first class