Healy opens up on injury: ‘Probably took the wrong risk’

Alyssa Healy revealed a ruptured plantar fascia in her foot forced her to watch from the sidelines as Australia were knocked out of the T20 World Cup.

Australia had hoped to have their captain fit for the semi-final, which underdogs South Africa won by a thumping eight wickets on Thursday night in Dubai, but the decision was taken not to risk her playing.

Healy’s absence wasn’t confirmed until the toss but after the game she spoke for the first time about the full extent of the injury to the connective tissue which runs under the arch of the foot from the heel bone to the base of the toes suffered while running between the wickets during Australia’s penultimate group-stage game against Pakistan.

“It’s a bit sore,” she said with heavy taping visible underneath her sock. “I ruptured my plantar fascia. I completely ruptured one and partially ruptured the other.

“It was just a matter of function and pain and what I could handle. Ultimately, I probably only had one game in me and probably took the wrong risk at the end of the day.”

“It was a really hard decision to make last night as to whether or not we were going to give it a punt,” Healy added. “I tried to make the team decision and sat myself down instead of taking the risk.”

Healy’s availability for the WBBL, starting on October 27, and India’s tour of Australia from early December, remains unknown.

“I don’t know yet,” she said when asked how long she expected to be out for. “We’ll assess that when we get back. WBBL starts next Sunday so we’ll reassess that as we go.

“Tonight was always going to be a real long shot and probably what I was going to have to go through to try and play the game wasn’t going to be very pretty either.

“It was hard to do everything I needed to do to try and get out there tonight. Ultimately, I made the team decision to sit down and give the girls who are fully fit the opportunity to go out there and do that. It is what it is and hopefully it’s on the mend and we can play some more cricket next week.”

Healy was an uncomfortable spectator as Australia scrapped their way to 134 for 5 in an uncharacteristically conservative innings after being sent in to bat first.

Ayabonga Khaka and Marizanne Kapp struck early and Australia were kept quiet through the middle overs before Anneke Bosch made light of the run chase with an unbeaten 74, sharing a second-wicket stand worth 96 runs off just 65 balls with Laura Wolvaardt.

“It was hard to watch, knowing that you can’t really go out there and help,” Healy said. “But it was good to see so many positives throughout the tournament. It hasn’t ended the way we wanted, but I think we’ve played some amazing cricket.

“It’s knockout cricket, right? If you don’t quite turn up on the night and it doesn’t go your way, then you’re out. So, it’s pretty cutthroat. We’ve been in similar positions before and we’ve got ourselves over the line. So, it wasn’t to be tonight, but we’ll learn from that and get better.”

Healy was full of praise for stand-in captain Tahlia McGrath, who had led Australia to victory by a thrilling nine runs against India in their final group game.

“T-Mac’s had the opportunity to captain in my absence before and done it outstandingly well,” she said. “At the moment that it happened, everyone was pretty aware that things were a little grim and that people were probably going to have to play different roles.

“I can’t fault the side at all in their optimism in taking on the challenge and going, ‘you know what, great, I get an opportunity to do this, do that, whether it’s opening the batting captaining, whatever it is’, so that’s where I feel like the group’s in such a great place.

“It’s kind of a disappointing night because we’re actually in a really good place as a side and unfortunately one bad night people are going to write about us but I think where we’re at as a team is so exciting for the future.”