Noffke has also played for Middlesex, Durham and Gloucestershire

Worcestershire's Ashley Noffke says his enforced spell on the sidelines this winter was a blessing in disguise - in identifying that he had skin cancer.

Noffke, 32, was out of action with a hip problem, when he had an innocuous-looking mole removed from his leg.

But the Australian fast bowler's mole proved to be a grade three melanoma.

"The doctor said if I came here without having it cut out, there was a chance of it being less likely to be cured," he told BBC Hereford & Worcester.

"To get hit by the hip injury was very frustrating but, in hindsight, maybe it was all for a greater cause.

"If I hadn't have had the hip injury and spent so much time off the field, I wouldn't have had the mole removed off my leg and I wouldn't have known it was a melanoma."

Noffke is now careful to get checked a regular basis.

"It is an ongoing process, every three or four months," he said.

"And, as soon as I get back to Australia, I will be going to see the doctor again.

"It is a matter of keeping an eye on everything.

"I am a pretty freckly sort of character so I've got to be extra careful about being in the sun and also if there are changes in the body and marks on the skin."

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