Glenn Maxwell feared he would NEVER play cricket again after his freak leg injury

Glenn Maxwell has opened up on his fears that he would never play cricket again after he broke his leg in freak circumstances late last year.

The all-rounder shattered his left fibula, as well as rupturing all the ligaments on top of his foot at a friend’s birthday party, when his old schoolteacher fell on his leg. 

Maxwell lost five kilograms in the two weeks following his operation, and he has revealed how the sheer scale of his injury left him concerned that he would never return to the cricket field. 

Glenn Maxwell has revealed he feared he may never play cricket again after breaking his leg in a freak accident in November last year 

‘That first week in hospital was pretty difficult […] I did think that I might not play cricket again,’ the Aussie all-rounder told Fox Cricket on Tuesday during the Big Bash League clash between the Sydney Strikers and the Melbourne Renegades.

‘There were those thoughts while I was in hospital looking at my leg because it looked like a balloon.’

Maxwell, who has spent the summer as analyst for Fox Cricket during Big Bash games, admitted the extent of the pain he was in only dawned upon him once he returned home. 

‘The next week I was at home after I got back from the hospital and I thought it was going to be a lot easier at home,’ he explained. 

The 34-year-old fractured his fibula while attending a friend’s 50th birthday party

‘[But] not having the nurses there and not having the constant pain medication […] that was probably the most pain I’ve ever been in. Just trying to get around the house was awful.’

Reflecting on his rehab, Maxwell said he had to effectively teach himself how to walk again in the early stages of his recovery.

‘I had to teach myself how to walk, which was pretty bizarre because the actual joint was so swollen and tight that it was basically like having two blocks of wood nailed together,” he said. 

‘There was no real movement, no flexion at all. I had to teach myself how to get the courage to walk forward over the top of my foot and go heel to toe.’

The all-rounder attended the Boxing Day Test at the MCG as a spectator last month

The injury ruled Maxwell out of the Big Bash and of Australia’s ODI series against England. 

More significantly, it derailed Maxwell’s plans to resume his red-ball career. 

The 34-year-old served as reserve player during Australia’s tour of Sri Lanka in the winter and was expected to play two Sheffield Shied games for Victoria as he looked to return to play the longest format of the game for the first time in three years.

Maxwell was one of Australia’s best performers in the T20 World Cup in November as the Aussies’ title defence ended with a whimper on home soil

And while he still hasn’t set a return date, he did not rule out the chance of being in Australia’s squad for the tour of India next month with the first of four Tests starting in Nagpur on February 9.

‘We’ve got the Test tour of India coming up and I was super motivated to get myself ready for that. 

‘Whether or not I’m on that, only time will tell. But I’ve done everything in my power to try and get ready for it and get myself back playing. There’s still a fair way to go.’