MELBOURNE, (Reuters) – David Warner gave the Australian camp a scare ahead of tomorrow’s opening Ashes test by hurting his neck during a fielding drill but the opening batsman is confident he will be fit to face England at the Gabba.
Australia’s vice-captain felt a twinge in his neck as he ran back to take a catch on Tuesday and immediately left the field to receive treatment.
“My neck is quite stiff,” Warner told reporters afterwards.
“I took a high ball out there and something just twinged in my neck. I’m getting a bit of physio treatment at the moment and hopefully it’s settled down over the next 24 or 48 hours.
“I’ll try and have a hit tomorrow at some stage. I might have to work on my technique a little bit more, facing up,” he said. “It’s quite sore. I haven’t really had a stiff neck like this one.
“I’ll get some treatment tonight, and get some heat packs on there and get some fingers into it and hopefully it’s better tomorrow.”
The 31-year-old tried to have some batting practice later but cut it short. He said he left the nets because of alignment issues and did not want to get into “bad habits” ahead of the series opener.
“It was more of an alignment thing,” he said. “I couldn’t align myself face-on with Hicky (batting coach Graeme Hick).
“So for me, if I’m not being able to face on him, there’s no point because I can’t angle myself and I’ll get into bad habits and that’s not how I want to train.
“I don’t think a sore neck is going to keep me out.”
