Cricket: Neesham may need more surgery

Jimmy Neesham in action. Photo supplied.
Jimmy Neesham in action. Photo supplied.
Black Caps and Otago all-rounder Jimmy Neesham may face surgery and possibly another lengthy lay-off.

The 25-year-old struggled with a back complaint during the first test against Australia in Brisbane and was ruled out for the second test.

He returned home to New Zealand and yesterday told Sky Sports he may require surgery.

''So we've just had a fair bit of stiffness and soreness,'' he said.

''It had reached a point where it was no longer, I suppose, feasible to continue playing through it. [Before the tour it was decided] we would be on the ball when it came to that sort of thing.

''So I've come back and seen a doc and we're looking for a second opinion tomorrow from a surgeon to decide whether I need to go under the knife or not.''

Neesham picked up a stress fracture earlier in the year and spent six months rehabilitating. He made his international comeback in August on the tour of Zimbabwe and South Africa, playing three ODIs and two international twenty20 games.

A left-hand batsman and right-arm bowler, Neesham has played nine tests. He averages 38.25 with the bat and 39.33 with the ball.

Fellow New Zealand all-rounder Corey Anderson has been playing as a specialist batsman for Northern Districts in a carefully managed return to cricket after he was ruled out of the Black Caps tour of Australia with lingering back issues.

 

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