|
BATSMAN SEEKS FREAK-FREE WEEK
England's Mark Butcher has been ruled out of the test series against the West Indies after a bizarre sequence of injuries over the weekend. Butcher, who has played 48 uninterrupted Tests, initially picked up a thigh strain last week, but was set to be named in the side for the 1st Test when he sustained whiplash in a minor car accident. Even so, he expected to be available for the 2nd Test, which starts at Edgbaston this week, when he aggravated the thigh strain lifting boxes at home. But if Butcher thought his run of bad luck was at an end he was wrong.
"I was walking to the Physio on Saturday morning," says the Surrey and England left hander, "when I walked into this sheet of plate glass that was being carried across the road by two men in overalls." Butcher sustained cuts and bruises in the incident. Worse was to come. "On the way home, I was taking a short cut across a building site when I was knocked unconscious by a plank of timber being carried by a man in a hard hat who had turned to speak to a colleague. It broke my nose and cut my forehead."
"But it didn’t end there," continues the 31 year old candidly. "I was taking a bath on Sunday night when somehow it broke free from the plumbing, rolled out the front door, down a steep hill which just happened to be outside my house, and collided with a wall at the bottom, catapulting me into a bed of nettles. I was then arrested after being spotted by a minibus full of old ladies. They must’ve wondered what a bloke with a head bandage and a neck brace was doing standing naked in a field full of sheep, holding a bar of soap and a long-handled bath brush!" he chuckles.
Incredibly, Butcher’s run of bad luck was still not over. He takes up the story: "I was sitting on my veranda this morning, with my guitar, writing a song. It was a Delta Blues type – you know, my woman’s left me, my bath’s left me, my job’s been taken by a fat man from the deep south, that sort of thing... When the G string snapped and severed my left arm below the elbow."
Butcher shakes his head at the recollection. "Luckily, the surgeons were able to reattach the limb and I'm hoping to be available for the winter tour of South Africa," he adds phlegmatically. "Until then I'm staying in bed."
se
|
