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McGrath writhed on the ground in agony from the pain in his right ankle, flopping about like a fish that had just been hooked out of a river. The ankle had puffed up the instant he rolled it on an errant cricket ball placed on the ground for training drills, and the pain was so intense that he immediately believed it was broken.
None of McGrath’s team-mates appeared overly concerned by his predicament as he struggled to control the pain. They were doing their own thing. Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist inspected the pitch – on which they intended to bowl if Ponting won the toss – Brett Lee limbered up, and no-one had noticed McGrath’s fall.
He clenched his teeth and forced himself to sit up again in a desperate attempt to catch someone’s – anyone’s – eye, but still no-one noticed him. His head fell back to the turf as he succumbed to the waves of pain that washed over him, and his hands covered his face. ‘Where are they?’ Perhaps this was the price he paid for being the dressing-room pest, the boy who cried ‘wolf’ once too often, but McGrath’s agony was very real.
‘I was passing the football – a rugby league ball – with Brad Haddin to warm up when it went skidding past me; a pretty poor pass by Hadds, which was disappointing seeing as he’s the Canberra Raiders’ number one ticket-holder,’ says McGrath. ‘I turned to chase after it and I planted my foot on a cricket ball that had been laid out for fielding training ... I rolled over, my ankle took the complete force of the fall, and I hit the deck.
‘I felt a sharp pain and when I looked up no-one was looking at me. I lifted my head again and shouted for someone to get Errol Alcott to treat me. They wanted to know if I was serious. “Of course I’m serious!”’
Ponting ran from the damp centre wicket with Gilchrist a pace behind him to join the throng of concerned players who milled around the winged Pigeon. The skipper needed to only read the expression on McGrath’s face as Alcott prodded and poked the bowler’s swollen ankle to realise he’d have to reshuffle his bowling attack.
‘The look on Pigeon’s face made it obvious he was in pain,’ Ponting recalls. ‘I think as soon as he trod on that ball he would’ve known his Ashes campaign was on the line. It broke and his face ... the poor bloke, it was as white as a sheet; he didn’t look good at all.’
Trainer Jock Campbell watched as Alcott commenced work on the ankle immediately. His efforts to help McGrath overcome the injury would only enhance the reputation he’d forged since taking on the job as the team’s physiotherapist in 1984.
‘Errol’s work bordered on miraculous,’ says Campbell. ‘He worked with Glenn as soon as it happened. He had Pigeon ice the area, make small movements with it and they made steady gains every day. To see both of them working together was amazing, brilliant. I reckon Glenn spent six hours a day, at least, in rehab. It was a massive effort that was very similar to one that got Steve Waugh over a hamstring injury on the previous Ashes tour.’
McGrath’s freak injury was a bitter blow to Australia’s chances of victory at Edgbaston. Not only had he dominated the English batsmen in Australia’s opening Test victory at Lord’s by taking nine wickets (5 for 53 and 4 for 29), but many team tactics for the Second Test revolved around him. It was decided, for instance, to use McGrath as much as possible against England captain Michael Vaughan to exploit his uncertain footwork, particularly early in an innings.
Kevin Pietersen, who had established himself as a danger man at Lord’s with two half-centuries, was also a target for McGrath. Ponting planned to initially set Warne and Lee in tandem against him because their styles troubled him, especially early in his innings. However, if Pietersen survived the first quarter of an hour, Ponting would unleash McGrath with the edict to bowl wide of off stump. The theory was that this would frustrate Pietersen, whose batting favoured the leg side. The Australians hoped that drying up his quick runs would test his patience and force him to play a rash shot.
But now these plans – and Australia’s chances of victory – lay in a crumpled heap in the outfield. The Edgbaston crowd cheering the sight of McGrath being helped onto a buggy only rubbed salt into the team’s wound. Ponting sought the counsel of the team’s senior players – Gilchrist, Langer, Hayden, Warne – and Darren Lehmann, who was working in England as a commentator, to discuss whether they should still go ahead with their plan to bowl first. Warne was the only man to advise against it.
McGrath returned to Edgbaston on crutches 15 minutes after play commenced, and he sat with his ankle packed in ice as Australia’s bowling attack struggled. The pitch was snails-low, there was no swing or seam movement, and England charged to 1 for 132 by lunch. Although dismissed for 407 at the end of the first day, England had adopted an aggressive approach and had taken the Aussies on, hitting 10 sixes and 55 fours. Ultimately, Australia would lose the Test by just two runs after Lee and Kasprowicz put on a last-wicket stand of 59. They displayed tremendous courage in the face of hostile fire, withstanding numerous blows from the English pace attack. England’s win levelled the series at 1–1.
‘It was a gutsy effort by both Binga and Kaspa,’ says McGrath of the stand. ‘They almost got us home, but Brett did it tough after he was hit on the hand by Andrew Flintoff. He’d been hit on the same hand in the First Test, and it must have hurt. However, he didn’t just soldier on, he took the fight to the English and almost did it. We were so proud of Brett and Kaspa.’
In the wash-up of the defeat, there was a school of thought in Australia – and in England, also – that the Aussies might have won had McGrath been in the line-up. It is a possibility Ponting refuses to dwell on.
‘If you ask Glenn that, he’ll say yes,’ says Ponting. ‘Look, who knows? You’re crystal-balling there. We didn’t score enough runs but our second and third bowlers got hurt as well. Warnie had to shoulder a lot of responsibility; we had to use Brett in a way I didn’t want to – he’s best used in short, sharp spurts, but he had to get through a heavy workload. I had to keep going back to Brett because Gillespie and Kasprowicz were going all around the park.
‘Had McGrath been there with his expertise, skill and experience, it could’ve been a different kettle of fish, but we’ll never know. I was going to bowl that morning anyway and I did. If I had’ve had Glenn that morning, it might have been a completely different story. It was just hard to cover for one of the greatest bowlers of all time.’
Coach John Buchanan, one of cricket’s left-field thinkers, also refuses to concede that the loss of McGrath at the eleventh hour cost Australia the Edgbaston Test – and, ultimately, the Ashes, which were won by England 2–1.
‘It cost us Glenn McGrath for that Test,’ says Buchanan. ‘It was hard work for him to come back, and when he did he hurt his elbow and needed to compensate for his lack of match fitness. It didn’t cost us the Ashes. Even on that day when everyone said we shouldn’t have bowled, well, I did think we should’ve bowled. We bowled pretty terribly and fielded pretty terribly, yet even with all that we bowled them all out on that first day. I think there were a lot of other factors, but in saying that, I’d hate to see anyone lose their frontline bowler just before a Test.’
The early prognosis for McGrath wasn’t good. It was a grade two tear of the lateral ligament and there was associated bruising. Alcott told the press that McGrath also experienced bone abnormalities in his joint. The injury produced swelling, internal bleeding and some loss of motion.
While Alcott refused to elaborate on how long it would take McGrath to recover, it was noted that this injury would normally take up to six weeks to heal. Behind the scenes, though, Alcott informed the Australian team’s hierarchy he was confident McGrath would be available for the next Test. While McGrath had torn some ligaments, Alcott explained that the injury could be overcome by strapping the ankle in such a manner that his foot would not twist or rotate when he bowled.
The fast bowler iced his ankle, strapped it and pictured his body healing itself. In the days that followed he lost the crutches, the moon boot and, most incredibly of all, the hobble. McGrath was lucky to have Alcott on his side. He had developed a reputation for shortening recovery times to injuries; in 2004 he’d helped the actor Russell Crowe to recover from a dislocated shoulder quickly enough for him to complete filming the boxing movie Cinderella Man. Getting McGrath into a position where he could play seven days after it appeared his tour was over only enhanced Alcott’s reputation. ‘It almost seemed impossible to believe,’ says Ponting of McGrath’s rapid recovery.
Although McGrath was able to bowl again, he needed to prove his match fitness to the Australian selectors. It had been three weeks since he last bowled in match conditions, and McGrath was renowned for gaining his fitness and rhythm from grinding through lots of bowling. While he wanted the Pigeon in his attack, Ponting was adamant he should not be picked just because Alcott felt he could play; Ponting needed proof he’d last the distance.
A fitness and bowling session for McGrath was held on the centre wicket at Old Trafford the day before the Third Test. Some reporters felt it was simply an attempt to play mind games with Michael Vaughan, however McGrath backed up the following morning with another 30 minutes of solid bowling. It was good enough for him to regain his place in the attack ahead of Kasprowicz.
McGrath’s miraculous comeback was one of the most incredible recoveries from a sports injury people could recall. However, it was tempered by some misfortune when Gilchrist spilt two chances – from Trescothick and Vaughan – and McGrath was denied another wicket when he bowled Vaughan with a no-ball.
Jock Campbell winces when he thinks of what McGrath’s ankle endured as he bowled over after over at Old Trafford. ‘When Glenn had his ankle strapped it was so badly swollen I couldn’t see it – it was like a balloon. He had ligament damage, a sore elbow as well, and it struck me that if the public saw that, if they saw what Glenn and the other blokes went through to get on the field, they’d have huge respect for them. It was incredibly gutsy.’