‘When I was admitted to the hospital’: Shreyas Iyer recalls ‘excruciatingly painful’ injury, shares recovery mantra

India batter Shreyas Iyer recently spoke about the serious spleen injury he suffered during the third ODI against Australia. He said he did not understand how bad the injury was at first. The realisation came only after he was taken to the hospital. He described the pain as “excruciatingly painful”.

Despite the setback, Iyer made a strong comeback. He scored 49 runs in India’s opening ODI win against New Zealand in Vadodara.Talking about the injury, he said, “It was painful, excruciatingly painful. I didn't realise how tough that injury was until I got to know that spleen is an important part of our body and it's an organ and I didn't even know about the word.



"Then the next day when I was admitted to the hospital, after that I realised, ‘Wow, okay, this was a severe injury.’ Yes, it was (spleen was learnt as a new word that day).”

Iyer said the injury forced him to slow down. He explained how difficult it was for someone like him, who likes to stay active all the time.

“This process, I felt that I had to give myself a little bit of time not to over-exert myself because I'm someone who can't sit in one place. I want to keep doing one thing or another," he told the broadcaster.

"But this injury especially gave me time to reflect upon myself, rejuvenate and also relax as much as possible because it's not that you can get up and start working out straight away.”

He followed the medical advice closely during recovery. “You need to give yourself a lot of time and I was told that within six to eight weeks, you will be back to normal and then you can start training. So I just followed the proper guidelines, which I was provided with and then after that it was a smooth sailing ride.”

Speaking about his batting approach after returning, Iyer said he is not forcing anything. “Honestly speaking, I'm not trying to do anything. It's just the instincts.” He added that he now wants to react naturally and stay in the moment.

Iyer also spoke about batting with Virat Kohli. He said their talks are simple and light. “See, the communication has always been funny.” Their main focus is to stay positive, build a safe total, and give confidence to the bowlers. He feels this mindset helps the team perform better and win matches.


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