Clarke says he would have had no regrets had his career ended following his injury in the Test series against India.
Michael Clarke says he thought he had played his last game of his career when he tore his hamstring against India at the Adelaide Oval in December, but added that he would have has no regrets had it have been his final match for Australia.
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Clarke will miss Australia’s opening game against England at the upcoming Cricket World Cup, but is likely to slot back into the side for his side’s second pool game against Bangladesh on February 21.
“Scans confirmed I had torn my hamstring after the last day of the Adelaide Test – and I thought I might have just played my last game of cricket,” Clarke wrote in a Herald Sun column.
“I had just suffered my fourth hamstring injury in six months and my back was flaring up.
“I had also just scored a century in memory of my little brother, Phillip Hughes, in a winning Test side.
“If that was to be the end, I thought, I would have no regrets.”
Clarke said his attitude towards life and cricket changed after his father developed Hodgkins Lymphoma in 2007.
“It made me realise that, in the grand scheme of life, cricket was just a game and I had been incredibly blessed to have had the career and experiences I’ve had,” Clarke said.
“It’s easy to forget that when the pressure is on and the spotlight is firmly on you. But inevitably those moments pass and the overriding thought returns: I will cherish every day I play for Australia, but life will go on when those days are over.”
Clarke said he was always confident of being fit in time to play some part in the World Cup.
“My first thought after coming out of hospital wasn’t about meeting the World Cup deadline. It was about getting my body right – whether that took six weeks or six months,” he said.
“But as the rehab and training evolved and I could feel the improvement in my hamstrings and back, the tournament came into view.”
“I can’t tell you how good it felt to put on that Australian one-day uniform against the United Arab Emirates,” he added of Wednesday’s final World Cup warm-up, where he top-scored with 64 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
“The records will show that it was just a practice match – but it was so much more than that to me.”
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