Tayla Vlaeminck to miss another season of BBL as injuries continue to pile on for beleaguered young pacer.
Tayla Vlaeminck ‘shattered’ to miss another WBBL.
After recovering from a shoulder injury sustained during last year’s T20 World Cup more slowly than anticipated, fast bowler Tayla Vlaeminck has acknowledged that she is “shattered” to be excluded from the Melbourne Renegades’ forthcoming WBBL season.
Vlaeminck, 26, is among the world’s fastest bowlers, but her career has been plagued by injuries; since her debut in 2018, she has only made 29 appearances for her country. Her most recent setback occurred early in Australia’s opening match against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates when she injured her right shoulder while diving on the outfield.
Although the WBBL, which begins on November 9, was considered as a possible return for Vlaeminck, an increase in bowling workload over the past month has not been well received by her shoulder.
“I’m obviously a little bit shattered about missing out,” Tayla Vlaeminck told reporters in Sydney. “Unfortunately my shoulder’s just not loving bowling at the moment, so there’s not much I can do about that. I think we were hoping that my shoulder would probably respond a little bit better to bowling than it has.
“We lined up Big Bash to be that sort of end point. We sat pretty nice there [at] that year mark, and just in the last four weeks trying to ramp that up it just hasn’t responded the way we sort of thought it would.
“We got to a space where I pulled the pin. I probably didn’t feel confident enough to be able to actually perform if I got out for the Renegades. It’s one thing to get out on the pitch and be back playing, but you actually have to sort of back yourself in to be able to perform and do well for a team, which I didn’t feel like I was going to be able to do.”
Among Vlaeminck’s injuries are stress fractures to her foot and two dislocations of her left shoulder. She underwent two ACL reconstructions before making her international debut. She has made an effort not to lament her misfortune, though, and earlier this year Cricket Australia kept her on their core contracts list.
“I think you always go there initially, but I don’t think it’s overly helpful being in that space,” she said. “I just like to consider myself pretty lucky that Cricket Australia have stuck by me throughout this whole thing.
“I’ve got heaps of support and hopefully over the next four to six weeks I’ll be able to continue to work on it and see how we go for the back end of the season.”