London: England batter Liam Livingstone is hoping to get fitness clearance from the ECB by weekend to take part in the Indian Premier League. Livingstong has not played competitive cricket since suffering a knee injury on his Test debut in Pakistan four months ago. He had also endured an ankle injury last year and that flared up in recent weeks to make his rehab tougher.
It is certain that he will miss Punjab Kings' third game of the season against Surnisers Hyderabad on April 9. They play their fourth game at home on April 13. "(I'm) getting there, finally," Livingstone said on LancsTV's coverage of Lancashire's opening County Championship fixture against Surrey. "It's been a long road: three or four days a week at the gym over the last three or four months. Maybe towards the end of this week, or start of next week, I'll fly out to India and get going again.
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"Feeling much better. I had some injections midway last week. It's settled it down a lot, finally been able to get outside and do some running and get back to proper cricket stuff. That's probably been about four or five days now, so just trying to build back up to match fitness now."
Livingstone had recovered from the ankle injury to play in the T20 World Cup which England won. "I got over my ankle to play in the World Cup, then my knee has been a bit of a niggly one. I finally sorted that out and my ankle flared up again. Hopefully they're both under control now and it'll be nice to get back playing finally," he said.
"It's been a difficult couple of months, but finally now I'm like a little kid wanting to get back playing cricket again. Hopefully over the next couple of days, I'll get the clearance to head out there. I'm really looking forward to getting back out, getting back playing, and hopefully over the next 48 hours or so I'll finally get that," he added.
Livingstone is an important player for Punjab Kings, who retained him on a contract worth Rs 11.50 crore ahead of the auction last year. He had hammered 437 runs last season at a strike rate of 182.08. (PTI)
