Saqib Mahmood: England bowler details stages of recovery from stress fracture

It's the last week of September 2022 and Mahmood can bowl again for the first time, but with no momentum and with just a bowling coach for the company.

"As soon as I got to the middle, I was so overwhelmed," he told BBC Sport afterwards. "It looked so far.

"I visualized my first ball as this little outswinger just outside the stump, the coach taking it in the glove.

"It doesn't didn't go like that. He went down the side of the leg and the coach missed it with a full dive.

"It was like I completely forgot how to bowl."

Five more months, often arduous, and the 26-year-old does his long-awaiting England return in a one-day international match in Bangladesh, which kicked off at 06:00 GMT.

A journey that started in tears after the phone call that confirmed his diagnosis is now over, but not for two weeks es in a holiday home with Jofra Archer plus a sleepless night fearing repeat injury in Sri Lanka.

Slow progress

Mahmood has spoken to BBC Sport throughout his recovery. He cried when he first received news of his diagnosis and explained the relief in September to finally be able to train again.

The Birmingham-born Lancashire tailor suffered the injury in a County Championship game in April, two months after making his Test debut. He returned to live with his mother and brother.

"The beginning was the most difficult," he said in February, going back to the Previous 10 months.< /p>

"Then the first week or two it was good to get back to the gym sports, but then it got boring and I really hated that part.

"I found it quite difficult to watch the T20 World Cup [England's win in Australia in November]. Even looking at how the test match team is doing [under captain Ben Stokes] it's great to see, but I'd be lying if I said sometimes it wasn't hard."

Mahmood's first bowl five months ago followed a two-month exercise ban and another two months of His rehabilitation started with just walking on a treadmill, but has since moved to intense workouts in the gym - often alone.

At all times the priority is not to overload the spine with stress Mahmood spent more time with a DEXA scanner, a type of X-ray machine that measures bone density, than some of his friends.

For the first week, all bowling is one step, then five in the second d, before a gradual increase in the length of the swing.

The number of balls is scientifically managed too with no more than 30 allowed per day in the early stages. It all happens under the eye of England strength and conditioning coach Phil Scott, whom Mahmood has known since he was a teenager.