Cricket: Back to the recovery table for ailing Vettori

New Zealand Cricket received the worst possible news yesterday with confirmation that Daniel Vettori has a stress fracture in his back.

English side Warwickshire said a scan had revealed the fracture in Vettori's lower back. The left-arm spinner had played just one match for the county.

"Following further consultations with the relevant medical staff, it has been confirmed that Dan Vettori has been diagnosed with a stress fracture... it has therefore been agreed he will return to New Zealand for his treatment and rehabilitation programme and he will leave for home as soon as is practical," a spokesperson for the club said.

New Zealand manager Lindsay Crocker said Vettori would return in the middle of the week.

Vettori has been plagued by back injuries throughout his career. In 2000 he suffered stress fractures during a series against Australia and left a tour to Zimbabwe later that year due to a similar injury.

Just last year he missed games against a FICA World XI with back pain. While NZC officials sweat over his health, Crocker said Vettori was accepting of the situation. "He's OK. He's pretty philosophical about it," said Crocker, who talked to the Black Caps vice-captain on Friday night, before it was confirmed the injury was a stress fracture. "He's been down this path before."

Therein lies the dilemma. Vettori is absolutely crucial to the future success of New Zealand in both the long and short forms of the game but his workload needs to be carefully monitored.

When Vettori isn't firing, like on the recent tour of South Africa where his test analysis was four wickets for 244 off nearly 100 overs of toil, New Zealand are noticeably the worse for it.

"He needs to rest initially then do some strengthening work in the area," Crocker said. "It's normally two to three months until he's right again so he should be ready for the next Black Caps engagement which is [the Champions Trophy] in October."

Crocker said Vettori was fine when he left the Republic and that the injury had, ironically, come at a time when his workload was relatively light.

"It's not like he's been bowled into the ground by any means," Crocker said. "One of the things we find with our big guys - and it is the nature of international cricketers' lives - is that it is not just the workloads of playing and bowling, it's travel as well.

"There's no way around that. We'd like to be able to email the guys from venue to venue but we can't.

"As to why Dan might pop it now as opposed to when he has a high workload, we don't know the reason."

Warwickshire coach and former New Zealand batsman Mark Greatbatch said Vettori had been looking forward to playing for the county.

"Clearly now he will need to focus his energies on getting healthy. [We] share his disappointment at having to return home so soon."

Vettori joins a significant invalid list. Of the bowlers on the contracted list announced Friday, Shane Bond, Kyle Mills, Michael Mason and now Vettori all have significant injuries.

Crocker, however, remained optimistic all would be available for the Champions Trophy.

"That's an important point of consideration at contracts time," he said. "If we were to play tomorrow it would be a problem."

If this season is like the past two, the Black Caps will have to call on several players who didn't make the contract cut.