'Struggle street': Gutsy Stanlake plots next comeback

Queensland quick Billy Stanlake has revealed the full extent of his first back stress fracture in more than five years as he finds himself in the familiar pre-season position of rehabilitation.

Stanlake could yet be sidelined for another five months after suffering the injury just four overs into the opening spell of his County Championship debut for Derbyshire in May.

It was just his ninth first-class match since his Sheffield Shield debut in November 2015, his career having been punctuated since by stress fractures in his back, pelvis and feet amid other medium-term injuries.

Remarkably, the 26-year-old opted to push through the pain and bowl another 13 overs across a tough opening day against Essex, claiming two wickets in the process.

"I reckon it was in about the fourth over of my first spell … that's when I started to struggle and it just got worse as the day went on," Stanlake told cricket.com.au.

"By the sixth, seventh over I pretty much knew it was a 'stressy'.

"I ended up bowling 17 overs and then luckily they declared and I got off the field, because I pretty much couldn't move by the end of it.

"I didn't want to let anyone know I was struggling, because they were giving us a bit of tap and I at least wanted to try and get through and make something happen in the game.

"I was able to get two quick wickets just after lunch, and I was just saying to myself, 'Come on, get one more here and the game might turn around'.

"But they went at a pretty rapid rate after that and my back was just deteriorating more and more as I was bowling, and I was just really struggling just to move around the field.

"The captain was like, 'Can you come back on for another spell?' And I was like, 'Yep, all good'. I tried to bowl a couple of bouncers but I was just on struggle street."

Two months on from the injury, Stanlake has come to terms with the prospect of another bout of rehab, which currently consists of three two-hour sessions weekly.

But another golden opportunity missed for a man Ricky Ponting declared had the potential to be "one of the all-time great fast bowlers" remains an undeniable source of frustration.

Particularly considering Stanlake had shown a glimpse of exactly why Ponting had made such a statement, with the right-arm quick destroying Tasmania's top four with a fast and accurate short-pitched assault in the Marsh One-Day Cup in February.

"I think the immediate reaction is probably anger and frustration, but one thing I do well is, I'm able to get past things really quickly, and after a couple of days I was able to just say to myself, 'Shit happens – it is what it is' and then I just got on with it," he said.

"I was very excited by the opportunity to play a full season of county cricket, in all three formats, but especially to get a lot of red-ball cricket in.

"I felt like my game was in a really good place at the back-end of the season here, I felt like I was bowling really well, so it was the perfect time for me to go and play lots of cricket, which is something I haven't really had.

"But I got over there and the back went on me pretty much straight away.

"I spoke to the physio and the coach (Dave Houghton) and I just said, 'Look, my back's no good here – I'm pretty sure it's a 'stressy', and I'm really struggling'.

"I didn't even really need the scan to know what it was, but obviously you've still got to get checked out.

"It was a hard one to tell the coach because I felt really bad – I was supposed to be there for the whole season, play all formats, and so for that to happen on day one was a tough pill to swallow.

"I almost felt worse for the county than I did for myself, just because they'd given me such a good opportunity and they were expecting me there for the full season." 

Despite taking 13 wickets in 12 matches through his maiden campaign with the Melbourne Stars in the KFC BBL, and returning to Queensland's Shield squad at the back-end of the summer, the 204cm paceman described his season as "a bit of a shitshow", for reasons that ultimately led to the stress fracture.

"I was in a really good place leading up to the start of the season, then I went over to IPL and I didn't play, and I was stuck in a hotel for 8-10 weeks, then doing quarantine and straight into Big Bash, and we were in a bubble for that," Stanlake explained.

"So I probably lost a lot of strength, and I identified that a little bit towards the end of Big Bash, and so once we got out of that (Big Bash) bubble I was doing everything I could to keep my strength up at the back-end of the season.

"But then only playing the one-dayers and doing a lot of the 12th man duties for the Shield, it was just a bit of a shitshow of a season in the end."

Stanlake's loss of leg strength through those bubble and especially the quarantine periods, where he was often unable to access gyms as readily as he could have in normal circumstances, was then determined to be a key factor in issues that were later detected in his action. 

"We went back through some footage from the season, and I was getting into some bad positions with my action, not every ball, but just every now and then, and that just compounded over time and it's probably what led to the stressy," he said.

"The biggest thing I've identified is the need to get the strength back into my legs.

"And the other thing we found was I was probably just jumping in (to his delivery stride) a bit too much, and crossing my legs.

"So I just need to straighten up a little bit at my jump-off point, but I think that'll come with getting strength back in my legs.

"I sort of knew I was doing that a little bit towards the end of the season but I was still bowling well, and I felt like my bowling was in a really good place, so because the outcome was good I wasn't too concerned about it.

"But I didn't realise that some balls I was getting into such bad spots."

Stanlake said that results from a scan on Thursday revealed the bone isn't quite healing as quickly as Queensland Cricket medical staff would like, and he was set to meet with his doctor on Friday afternoon to work through an updated rehabilitation schedule.

Longer term, a pre-Christmas return to the Big Bash, in which he still has two years remaining on his Stars contract, is pencilled in as the goal.

Beyond that, it's another shot at county cricket, and then further down the track, Stanlake of course wants to add to his 26 Australia caps, the most recent of which came in November 2019 as a replacement for Pat Cummins, another speedster who has known more than his share of stress fractures, and who now acts as a source of motivation for the Queenslander.

"(He and Cummins) went through pretty similar injury paths when we were younger, with the amount of stressys we had, so when you see how he's gone on to become so resilient – I can't remember the last time he missed a game because of injury – to do what he's done at international level in all formats, it's quite amazing to see him hold up as well as he does, and to perform like he does consistently," Stanlake added. 

"I want to get back to playing for Australia – that's why I've always played cricket.

"But at this point I'm probably targeting Big Bash, although maybe not the start because those results yesterday might've just pushed me back a bit.

"When you haven't had one for five or six years, you start to think you're out of that period (of stress fractures), but the worst thing was I felt like my bowling was in such a good place – it was just the perfect time to go and play some red-ball cricket.

"But it wasn't to be.

"I always try to take the positive out of situations and the only one I can take this time is that at least I've got a big period of training now to build myself up, get really strong again and come back better.

"That was my mindset when I had stress fractures when I was younger, and I'm taking that same approach now."