[ad_1]
Neil Wagner has revealed how much agony he suffered during New Zealand’s victory over Pakistan.
Your playlist will load after this announcement.
The legendary bowler is now out of action after battling two broken fingers. Source: 1 NEWS
At one point, the Black Caps star had to chew on a towel as she screamed as she received injections to numb the pain of bowling with two broken fingers.
While it means that you will now be out of cricket for up to six weeks, you already have your next goal firmly in mind.
It’s not exactly the start of the new year Wagner envisioned, at home in Tauranga as his teammates prepare for their last test of the summer in Christchurch.
“I have a bit of FOMO,” he told 1 NEWS.
His ‘fear of missing something’ comes even after the two broken toes that have added to his lionheart legend.
Wagner ran through it all over and over again, 49 overs in total.
“The last day I couldn’t walk to get out of bed,” he says.
“I fell on the ground quite frustrated and quite angry, and I just wanted to go out and play.
“And while I was trying to walk, the pain got worse and worse, and I took the frozen vegetables out of the refrigerator and a couple of bags of ice and tried to ice it a couple of times.”
The 34-year-old resorted to prayer and painful injections.
“Around the twelfth injection of the day, I started screaming and screaming a bit and chewing on the towel,” he says.
“The injections helped for about two hours, then you had to try to bite your teeth, clench and pass.”
And running to the bowl, he had a message drumming in his head.
“Just get a wicket,” Wagner laughs.
“That’s it. I kept walking back to my goal saying to myself, ‘Just a wicket, just a wicket.’
Wagner is ignoring the applause that has come since then, an attitude that is both remarkable and yet unsurprising.
“The burning desire to help the team is there, you know, and it kind of helps you get through it.”
It helped that he did, with a couple of crucial wickets on day five when the Black Caps posted a win to savor.
“To be honest, I was really relieved, I was like, ‘Oh, thank God, it’s all worth it.’
It was worth the pain and he had to spend much of the summer at a calmer pace.
Wagner now hopes to return to his international duties for a test championship final at Lord’s.
