Relieved Stoinis feared he would miss Champions Trophy

Australia allrounder Marcus Stoinis said he feared he would miss the Champions Trophy after injuring his shoulder in the Indian Premier League earlier this month.

The 27-year-old Stoinis was eventually declared fit by Cricket Australia’s medical staff for the tournament that starts in the UK on 1 June after passing a fitness test in Brisbane.

The right-arm medium-pacer and hard-hitting batsman suffered the injury while playing for the Kings XI Punjab on 5 May with the initial prognosis being that he would miss six weeks, which meant he would miss the global event.

A relieved Stoinis though has passed all his medical assessments saying it has been all good news and he is confident that will be fit for the Aussies’ opening game against New Zealand on 2 June.

When asked if he thought he would be forced to miss the tournament, Stoinis said: “Definitely. Initially they said it would be 4-6 weeks in a sling, but then that change when I got home and it calmed down a little bit. It’s been good since then.

“With an injury, the first thing (you think about) is what you’re going to miss out on. So I tried to forget about that stuff as soon as I could because then you could go into a bit of a spiral, which is not a good place to be.

“It’s all on track. I’ve been working pretty closely with the physios and everyone seems to be happy with how it’s going.”

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