'Back stress fractures not career-threatening'

World Cup in Australia next month, but stress fractures cannot derail the star bowler's sparkling career, assures Dr Dinshaw Pardiwala, who is on the ICC medical advisory committee. "Stress fractures of the back are not career-threatening or career-ending. In most instances, once you rest and rehabilitate, you can return to complete normalcy. Although stress reactions heal quickly, stress fractures take a longer time and the recovery is frustratingly slow, because there's not too much that you can do except for unloading the area and subsequently gradually reintroducing loads once healing is complete. Stress fractures are unlike traumatic fractures and rest is a critical aspect of the treatment in these injuries. Once you do that, it recovers," Pardiwala explained to TOI.

Read AlsoJasprit Bumrah likely to miss T20 World Cup

India's T20 World Cup hopes suffered a big blow on Wednesday with pace bowler Jasprit Bumrah's back injury resurfacing in a big way, which is likely to force him to skip the marquee event in Australia in October.

Can India risk taking Bumrah to the World Cup with this injury, and hope that the quick turns up for a game after taking painkillers? Pardiwala, who has treated top athletes like Neeraj Chopra, Saina Nehwal and Ravindra Jadeja, cautioned against it. "Well, you could take some strong painkillers and play, but firstly, you'll not be able to play to your best. At the same time, you'll probably worsen it." What exactly is a back stress fracture? "Any pacer is prone to stress fractures in the low back and this typically happens on the side opposite to the bowling arm. In a normal fracture, a bone breaks because of an injury. However, a stress fracture happens because of repetitive micro-injury as