BBC SPORT | Cricket | White's injury jinx

BBC Online's Matthew Allen looks at the injury-plagued career of England all-rounder Craig White.

Craig White is no stranger to the treatment table and his stop-start international career has been blighted by injuries.

The England all-rounder seems to make a habit of becoming injured just when he appears to have established himself on the Test scene.

One person who knows White's injury history is Yorkshire physio, Matt Carrico, who believes that the 32-year-old has had more than his fair share of problems.

"Craig's levels of fitness are superb but he just seems to pick up niggles and more serious injuries more often than other people do.

"There is no real medical reason for this. With some people it just happens that way.

Craig White
White made crucial runs in Pakistan
"Obviously being an all-rounder places greater strain on his body as he has to do so much for the team."

White's first brush with injury came early, on the 1994/5 Ashes tour to Australia when a torn side muscle ended his series.

He then faded from view until new England coach Duncan Fletcher awarded him a central contract in 2000 and White responded with the best Test performances of his career.

He terrorised the West Indies with some lethally fast bowling and then contributed valuable runs during the series victory against Pakistan that winter.

By the time he scored a Test-best 93 in the first Test against Pakistan at Lahore, White appeared to be the complete all-rounder England had been waiting for.

But injury concerns were never far away and he suffered an alarming and unexplained blackout that same year - a repeat of an incident that had happened to him 15 years earlier.

And he nearly missed the Lahore Test with a hamstring problem.

He has no long-term conditions so his chances of going on are just as good as any one else's

Matt Carrico

White started to suffer back pains while bowling in the subsequent series in Sri Lanka which was diagnosed as the beginnings of a stress fracture.

He was forced to sit out the two Test matches against the visiting Pakistan team in May 2001, and had failed to recover full fitness by the start of the Ashes tour.

He played in the first three Ashes Tests but was dropped for the last two when it became apparent that he had lost his sharpness of the previous summer.

He was picked for the one-day series in Zimbabwe in October, but damaged his knee slipping in the bath, and had to withdraw to undergo surgery.

He joined his England team-mates on the tour of India in November, but warned coaches that he was unable to bowl at top pace, forcing them to add Andrew Flintoff to the party as bowling cover.

But his injury appeared not to affect his batting, and he again shone against top-class spin bowling, scoring his maiden Test century in Ahmedabad.

Bounced back

White appeared to have ressurected his career again, before falling victim to the injury jinx once more when he tore cartilage in his left knee while fielding in the third Test.

The injury once again required surgery, forcing him out of the one-day series in India.

But White has bounced back from setbacks before and Carrico believes he can do it again.

"No-one is going to be as fit at 32 than at 25, but there is no way of predicting how long Craig can keep going," Carrico said.

"The most important thing is that he has no long-term conditions so his chances of going on are just as good as any one else's.

"So there is no reason why he can't be playing until he is 40."


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