Kevin Pietersen will have to manage his nagging Achilles injury through the Ashes series after ruling out the long break he would need to cure the problem. But he is confident that the England medical team have finally got to the root of the trouble.
Pietersen’s value to England has been underlined in the opening phase of the World Twenty20. They were nervous without him in losing to the Netherlands on Friday, but were a different proposition in beating Pakistan to reach the Super Eights on Sunday, when he scored 58 off 38 balls.
Pietersen said that an injection in the nerve linking his back to his right Achilles has calmed the problem, although he felt some pain in the final stages of his innings and later in the field. With five Test matches against Australia compressed into seven weeks from July 8, England can ill afford a relapse.
Pietersen said: “What cures it is two or three months out of the game and that just ain’t happening. It is impossible to take a break like that. The only way it would happen would be to tear a tendon or a hamstring or something like that. I don’t want to put my hand up for that kind of rest and it has not happened before.
“It is now a case of managing it on a daily basis. I cannot control when it flares up and when it doesn’t, but I can deal with it by doing the right stuff. We have diagnosed what the problem is over the last couple of days. It would be unusual if it flares up again, but if it does there are more steps we could take.”
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Pietersen has estimated that he is 70 per cent fit. He suffered Achilles and back trouble in the Caribbean but was allowed to play in the Indian Premier League before the home Test series against West Indies. Trouble resurfaced in the second Test at the Riverside, forcing him to miss the one-day internationals.
The squad returned to their homes after the game on Sunday and will reconvene in Nottingham tonight before the match against South Africa on Thursday. Pietersen believes that the 48-run win over Pakistan can be a turning point for the tougher games ahead.
“In the England teams I have played in for quite a while, there have been players who have played with fear, who think about consequences and what has been written in the media,” he said. “Against Pakistan they were not worried. We went out to play positive cricket and it was outstanding.”
Super Eights line-up
Group E
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England
India
South Africa
West Indies
Group F
Ireland
Netherlands or Pakistan
New Zealand
Sri Lanka