By Oliver Brett

Wearing his familiar Surrey colours and batting with Rikki Clarke

Alex Tudor was taking his pregnant fiancee for a pre-natal scan when a phone call came in from Surrey telling him he would not be required by the county in 2005.

It was late September 2004. Tudor had managed only half a match in the County Championship all season and the south London club which had nurtured him for so long had finally lost patience.

"I had a year left on my contract," Tudor, who has since joined Essex, tells BBC Sport.

"The-powers-that-be thought that because of my injuries - nobody knew what the problem was - they would call me.

"So I was taking my fiancee to hospital and Surrey were saying, 'Thanks but no thanks, we won't be renewing your contract.'

"To hear that from a club who you have played for, given everything to - it hurt me.

"The missus was saying, 'What is that phone call about?' but I didn't want to panic her."

Ironically, Tudor had just found out the cause of the problem that had restricted his cricket so dramatically over the past two seasons.

Everyone's aspirations must be to want to play international cricket Alex Tudor

Variously described as a back complaint or a side strain over the course of the 2003 and 2004 season, the injury was finally identified as collagen damage within the spine.

"Everyone has collagen in their bodies," explains the 27-year-old who sounds as though he could write a book about the subject.

"If you damage it, it takes six to eight months recovery. For the first three months I was doing very light work - just walking in Richmond Park - and gradually building up."

He expects he may miss the start of the season as he finished the lengthy rehabilitation process, but did bowl in a warm-up for Essex against Hampshire on 4 April and took some good wickets.

Wind the clock back six months, and a pre-season friendly at Chelmsford was the last thing Tudor expected to be appearing in.

"In the weeks after I had been released by Surrey, I wasn't even thinking about cricket, I was thinking about my baby and and wasn't willing to talk to anyone.

"But Ronnie [Irani, the Essex captain] had phoned me straight away. The first thing he wanted to do was sort me out with the help of his magician, Muller-Wolfhart."

Tudor in November 2002, after a Brett Lee bouncer did its damage

Dr Hans-Wilhem Muller-Wolfhart is held in high regard at Essex.

He helped Irani battle back from a career-threatening catalogue of injuries and has also been of major assistance to Darren Gough.

Both men travel to Munich to visit the doctor - and now Tudor will also make occasional trips to Bavaria.

Tudor can also commute easily enough from south London to Chelmsford and is convinced that Essex are a team worth playing for.

He says: "I saw the set-up here with Ronnie and [batting coach] Graham Gooch and Goughie.

"I looked at the squad they had here and felt it was going places."

Having last played for England on the 2002-03 Ashes tour - his involvement was ended in Perth when he was felled by a Brett Lee bouncer - Tudor's hunger remains for another shot at the big time.

"I still have that belief," he says. "If I didn't have that belief I don't know if I would carry on.

"Everyone's aspirations must be to want to play international cricket."