Maxwell out of England match after golf accident
Star allrounder suffers concussion after falling off the back of a golf cart
Glenn Maxwell has suffered a second freak injury in less than 12 months after it was revealed a golf cart mishap will rule him out of Australia’s World Cup match against England.
Maxwell was standing on the back of a moving golf cart in the dark after a round at Kalhaar Blues and Greens golf club in Ahmedabad when he lost his grip and fell off, suffering a concussion and some facial bruising.
No one else was hurt in the incident.
Australian players and coaches had been blowing off steam during a week-long break between their win over New Zealand in Dharamsala and their next match against England on Saturday.
Cricket Australia’s concussion protocols will see the allrounder miss the clash with their Ashes rivals at the Narendra Modi Stadium. The allrounder has not been replaced in the squad and Australia are hopeful he will only miss one game.
It comes after Maxwell broke his leg while at a birthday party in Melbourne in November last year, an injury that he is still recovering from.
Incidentally, Australia’s last World Cup campaign (the T20 tournament in Australia last year) was also disrupted by a golf accident when wicketkeeper Josh Inglis badly cut his hand on a six-iron club. This time, the mishap occurred after the round of golf had finished.
“In transporting him back from the clubhouse to the team bus, Glenn Maxwell came off the back of a cart and has suffered a small concussion, so he will go into concussion protocols for the next period of time and will unfortunately miss the England game,” coach Andrew McDonald said.
“The guys were ferried off on carts. Glenn and a few other players jumped on the back of carts and unfortunately he lost his grip on the way back to the team bus and sustained that injury.
“It was just a clear-cut accident … he’s an important player for us, hopefully it’s just the one game he misses.
“There’ll be no replacement (in the squad) as such, he’ll go into six to eight days concussion protocol. We feel as though it’ll be a relatively straightforward return to play protocol with where he’s at at the moment.”
Maxwell appeared in good spirits on Wednesday when the news broke and is expected to continue training over the coming days. But concussion injuries are taken seriously enough to warrant mandatory periods of recuperation.
The 34-year-old should be back for Australia’s match against Afghanistan in Mumbai next week, their penultimate group-stage game before the semi-finals.
“He’s doing well. He’ll start some light exercise today and we feel as though it will be a relatively straightforward return to play,” said McDonald.
“It doesn’t feel like it was on the severe side. The fortunate part of it was there was no other injuries sustained – it could have been a lot worse than it is.”
Marcus Stoinis shapes as the most likely replacement with the seam-bowling allrounder expected to be fit again after missing Australia’s last two matches with a calf niggle. Cameron Green is another option, while McDonald said they are also open to moving Mitch Marsh further down the order.
Travis Head looks certain to take on a greater role with the ball. Maxwell’s off-spin has been an important factor for the Aussies who do not have a back-up spinner in their squad behind frontliner Adam Zampa.
Marnus Labuschagne should hold his spot, but there could be a squeeze between him and Stoinis when Maxwell returns.
“We’ll be looking at Travis to take some pace out of the game (with the ball) and we’ve also got Marnus who can do some spinning duties,” said McDonald.
“(Labuschagne) has been working on his off-spin along with his leg-spin. We feel like we’ve got enough options to take the pace out of the game should the surface require that.”
Australia’s 2023 ODI World Cup fixtures
October 8: Lost to India by six wickets
October 12: Lost to South Africa by 134 runs
October 16: Beat Sri Lanka by five wickets
October 20: Beat Pakistan by 62 runs
October 25: Beat Netherlands by 309 runs
October 28: Beat New Zealand by five runs
November 4: v England, Ahmedabad (D/N), 7.30pm AEDT
November 7: v Afghanistan, Mumbai (D/N), 7.30pm AEDT
November 11: v Bangladesh, Pune, 4pm AEDT
Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Sean Abbott, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner, Adam Zampa
2023 World Cup standings
| Team |
M |
W |
L |
T |
N/R |
NRR |
Ded. |
PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
7 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.102 | 0 | 14 |
2 |
7 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2.29 | 0 | 12 |
3 |
6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0.97 | 0 | 8 |
4 |
7 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0.484 | 0 | 8 |
5 |
7 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | -0.024 | 0 | 6 |
6 |
6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | -0.718 | 0 | 6 |
7 |
7 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0 | -1.162 | 0 | 4 |
8 |
6 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | -1.277 | 0 | 4 |
9 |
7 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | -1.446 | 0 | 2 |
10 |
6 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | -1.652 | 0 | 2 |
M:Matches played
W:Wins
L:Losses
