The injury worries for CSK are becoming a nightmare for the 4-time IPL champions. And now, it is their captain, MS Dhoni, whose knee injury is under the scanner.
CSK head coach Stephen Fleming has confirmed what many had been rumoring about: MS Dhoni is battling a knee injury.
On the eve of the tournament opener, between CSK and GT, it was reported that Mahendra Singh Dhoni was not completely fit. Fleming, after CSK’s loss vs Rajasthan Royals (RR) in Chennai, put more light on to it, adding that Dhoni’s movements are also hindered due to his knee injury.
“He is nursing a knee injury, which you can see in some of his movement, which is hindering him somewhat,” Fleming said. “But still what you saw today is a great player for us. His fitness has always been very professional.”
CSK Skipper almost pulled off another spectacular heist, on Wednesday night vs RR. With 54 needed off the last 18 balls, the CSK skipper, along with Jadeja, dragged it to 7 runs needed off 3 balls. But pacer Sandeep Sharma kept his cool and only conceded singles on the last 3 balls as RR won by 3 runs.
MS Dhoni smashed 3 sixes in his 17-ball 32-run knock
Former CSK opener and now commentator, Matthew Hayden, expressed concern about Dhoni’s knee injury, saying that Mahendra Singh Dhoni was “limping quite heavily” during his innings.
“We will not give fans the false expectations that nothing’s wrong. There is definitely something wrong with MS Dhoni. His running between the wickets is usually quite electric, which was not there today,” said Hayden talking to the Star Sport after the match between CSK and RR.
“As the innings progressed on, we saw him limping quite heavily. There are some question marks, that I am sure that MS Dhoni will have to answer and the medical staff will get straight into it. He will want to keep playing in the tournament,” Hayden added.
Stephen Fleming hailed Dhoni’s fitness regime, revealing that the skipper had come to Chennai a month before the tournament and had kept himself fit in his home Ranchi.
“He comes a month before the tournament starts, so he doesn’t get the opportunity to do a lot (before that). He will do some netting in Ranchi, but his main pre-season (fitness) is done a month before when he comes to Chennai. And he works his way back into match-form and I think you can still see he’s playing pretty well. So we never have any doubts about the way he manages himself and he always gets himself up to speed,” the CSK head coach added.
Meanwhile, the latest injury concern from the RR match for CSK is that of pacer Sisanda Magala, who split up his webbing in his right hand while taking a catch. CSK already do not have Stokes (heel injury) and Chahar (hamstring) for a week and Chahar could be out for a longer time.
