�..It�..s very, very good to be back,�.� says Chad Keegan with the verve of a man whose rich promise has been repeatedly thwarted by back trouble and for whom, far worse, inactivity is death. �..Sitting around watching cricket is terrible. I can�..t do it. Before my op last summer I didn�..t watch or train. I tried to ride my motorbike but that didn�..t last.�.�

A rousing Championship return against Warwickshire �.. with bat and ball �.. was also made conspicuous by a meatier frame. �..I went back to South Africa in the winter for three months, to Durban to train with my uncle who�..s a bodybuilder. People had been calling me skinny, so he fed me six meals a day.�.�

He concedes that the back injury, which kept him out for a year, was not managed terribly well. �..They say I�..ve had a stress fracture from when I was younger. It�..s been like a time bomb waiting to go off. I�..ve had pain when I tried to come back, and that�..s down to too much bowling. The regime is stricter now. The more I bowl the more my rhythm improves but I have to restrict how much I do.�.�
Rob Steen, The Wisden Cricketer