Richardson suffers setback with another shoulder injury

Jhye Richardson's return to first-class cricket has again been delayed after the Western Australia quick dislocated his troublesome right shoulder during a Second XI game in Adelaide last week.

After a nine-month layoff during which he underwent hamstring surgery, Richardson returned for WA in the Marsh One-Day Cup on October 9, taking 2-36, and the right-armer was on track to play in his state's Marsh Sheffield Shield clash in the South Australian capital beginning Thursday.

He will now miss that match, though a statement from the Western Australian Cricket Association said the 27-year-old had been cleared of "any major structural damage".

"As a nationally contracted player," the statement continued, "WA Cricket is working with Cricket Australia to determine his return to play."

Richardson has had a torrid run of injuries in recent years. Since taking the new ball as a 22-year-old on Test debut in January 2019, he has played just three of a possible 40 Tests and 19 of a potential 128 limited-overs matches for Australia due largely to injury absences, which have included shoulder, hamstring and heel issues.

That period now includes two World Cup and Ashes cycles, all of which the express right-armer would have at least been in contention for, and speaking with cricket.com.au recently, he explained how the time off the park had tested him mentally.

"With extensive injuries, your mind obviously goes through a few challenges being in rehab for so long," he said.

"Having surgery on my hamstring to try and fix that issue meant being in rehab for so long, you don't forget that you're a cricketer, but you don't always feel like a cricketer because you're not playing and you're not necessarily training for cricket – you're training to rehabilitate an injury.

"It can get really, really frustrating at times when you're inside having to do a really gruelling, crappy session with no-one around you, and everyone is outside playing cricket.

"So that's been a struggle, and because this has been such a slow process as well, purposefully slow, mind you, I haven't really felt like a cricketer for a little while."

Richardson's injury is also set to further test WA's pace stocks, given the two-time defending champs played their first two Shield matches of this campaign without the services of Joel Paris (hamstring) and Matt Kelly (calf), though Paris could be in line for a return against the Redbacks after captaining the WA Second XI side last week and getting through 20 overs, while also scoring 42 and 30. 

Sheffield Shield 2023-24 standings

Team	Matches played M	Wins W	Losses L	Drawn D	No results N/R	Deductions Ded.	Batting Bonus Bat	Bowling Bonus Bowl	Total points PTS
1 Western Australia Men WA	10	5	2	3	0	0	5.53	9.4	47.93
2 Tasmanian Tigers Men TAS	10	5	2	3	0	0	6.06	8.3	47.36
3 NSW Men NSW	10	4	3	3	0	0	6.31	9	42.31
4 Victoria Men VIC	10	4	4	2	0	0	4.74	8.2	38.94
5 South Australia Men SA	10	3	6	1	0	0	5.19	9.3	33.49
6 Queensland Bulls QLD	10	2	6	2	0	0	3.54	8.3	25.84

Legend

M: Matches played

W: Wins

L: Losses

D: Drawn

N/R: No results

Ded.: Deductions

Bat: Batting Bonus

Bowl: Bowling Bonus

PTS: Total points