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Alice Capsey believes her recovery from surgery on a broken collarbone is “a couple of weeks” ahead of schedule, but she has yet to participate in full training ahead of next month’s Women’s T20 World Cup.
The 18-year-old all-rounder was included in England’s squad for the T20 World Cup next month, despite suffering an injury while fielding during a match against the West Indies in December.
Capsey broke her collarbone diving for a ball in Antigua and faced a race against time to be fit for the global showpiece, with a bone held together with a metal plate and seven screws after the “freak” incident.
“I’ve watched the dive back a couple of times and it doesn’t even look like I landed that awkwardly so it was a bit of a surprise to everyone but I guess it was one of those freak accidents,” said Capsey.
“I landed on it a little bit wrong and ended up breaking it (the collarbone) into little pieces, really.”
The injury was a disappointing end to an otherwise brilliant 2022, which saw Capsey win The Hundred with the Oval Invincibles and receive her first call up to the England squad in July 2022 for the Commonwealth Games.
She was also shortlisted for the ICC Women’s Emerging Cricketer of the year and Capsey has established herself as an important member of the national side but the injury is a setback for the youngster, who hadn’t suffered any major injuries through playing cricket before December.
“It [rehab] is going really well, I had a six-week scan on Tuesday which – it hasn’t given me the all clear – but it’s shown the bone healing and everything which is a real positive, so we can start doing a little bit of diving soon,” Capsey said.
“But I’ve been batting and bowling for the last two weeks, so it’s going well. It will be [a case of getting the first dive out the way].
“It will be a nightmare getting me there, but I reckon once I get that first dive out the way I’ll be good to go and then hopefully the rest is history and I’m not going to break another bone diving, but you never know.
“When something like that happens, there’s a confidence blow there but I’ve got three weeks to progressively bring diving back into my practice.
“It’ll start off very controlled and comfortable and then hopefully by the time it gets to the first warm-up game I’ll be completely integrated back into team fielding and diving around and I’ll be good to go.”
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England open their World Cup campaign against West Indies in Paarl on February 11 and will play India, Pakistan and Ireland in the group stages.
Capsey hopes to be fit for the match and feels she has been playing well in the nets, with the tournament just weeks away.
“The only race against time is probably diving and then just having confidence in my game. Actual performance-wise I’m not too concerned,” she added.
“I’ve been hitting them pretty nicely over the last couple of weeks and I’ve been back bowling 12 and 15 overs a week so actually cricket-wise my recovery has gone better than anyone really expected.
“I’ve been a couple of weeks ahead of schedule from week one really which has been really pleasing.”
