Nottinghamshire expect fast bowler Andrew Carter to return to full fitness in time for the start of the 2015 season.
Carter suffered his most recent stress fracture, diagnosed as a result of a non-union of the previous injury that blighted his 2013 campaign, during the warm-up ahead of Thursday’s victory over Leicestershire at Grace Road.
The Lincolnshire-born bowler demonstrated fine form in Nottinghamshire’s early-season reckoning and was named player of the month for May.
"I’ve been managing pain in my back for a while now and strangely it felt the best it had for a long time just before the injury occurred."
“I’m very disappointed to be out injured as the team is playing extremely well at the moment and I was making a good contribution,” said Carter.
“I always want to play as much as I can and I’ve been managing pain in my back for a while now and strangely it felt the best it had for a long time just before the injury occurred.
“I don’t want to look too far ahead at the moment but I want to have the operation and begin my rehabilitation as soon as I can because I know that I can contribute to a successful Nottinghamshire team in the years ahead."
Nottinghamshire Physiotherapist Jon Alty will play a leading role in Carter’s rehabilitation and has cited the non-union of an existing fracture sight as the cause of his enforced lay-off.
“Andrew worked exceptionally hard in the off-season to get himself fit and his form and wicket-taking saw him play more early-season matches than had been originally planned,” said Jon.
“We saw some early signs of the bone starting to break down and decided that he should only play white ball cricket for a while but he suffered some pain at Leicestershire and we diagnosed a stress fracture in his vertebrae.
“He’ll have an operation in the next few weeks to pin the vertebrae and the recovery will take three to six months depending on what they find.”
New recruit James Franklin is expected to check-in at Trent Bridge today while Nottinghamshire are working towards completing a deal for an additional bowler to feature in the final four LV= County Championship matches of the season.