Aussie coach responds to ‘unsettling’ Smith injury claim
Australia’s coach Andrew McDonald has stated the right decision was made for Steve Smith not to play after tension around his neck injury that ruled him out of the third Test in South Africa.
McDonald’s comments come after former spinner and friend of Smith, Steve O’Keefe, described it as “extremely unsettling” there were reports of displeasure in the Australian camp around Smith’s decision to rule himself out.
Steve Smith on the final day of the second Test. Getty Images
Smith injured his neck during the second Test and was given until the morning of the third Test to prove his fitness.
Ultimately, it was Smith himself who decided he couldn’t play with Josh Inglis called in. That then led to reports on SEN of frustration in the Australian camp over Smith’s decision not to play.
O’Keefe was not pleased that narrative was out there in the open.
“The simple fact we’re questioning it, that’s the language coming out of that group, makes me wonder what is going on inside that change room and in that team? For me, it was extremely untidy,” he said on Fanatics TV’s Chin Music.
“For the rest of the game to play out the way that it did, and I wish I wasn’t talking about this moment, but for me, it was extremely unsettling.
“A player like Steve I don’t think deserves to come under that sort of scrutiny given what he’s given that team, particularly in Cape Town, they should be putting their arms around him and even if that is a feeling, that never sees the light of day.”
His podcast co-host, Stuart MacGill suggested Smith would have been simply trying to avoid Australia playing with 10-men if his injury impacted him mid-Test.
McDonald meanwhile told reporters after the series ended that it was the correct call from Smith.
“The day before, it looked really positive,” he said. “But you never know how you’re going to pull up from that. All I’ll say is, the medical team and Steve gave it every chance. He wasn’t ready to play. He acknowledged that. We do put a lot of trust into our players, in particular, our senior players who know their body quite well. So that decision of Steve, I think, was the right decision.”
"It's happened now. What do we need to do to make sure it doesn't happen again and give him the best preparation that we possibly can."
Smith is likely to be without one teammate for the home summer against New Zealand with Marnus Labuschagne’s future looking like a fait accompli.
“We believed in Marnus for this tour. We’ll have to reassess that as we move forward. Others will sit there and say what that means for him. There’ll be a lot of speculation. There’s still a very good cricketer there. Every time he drops back to state level, he outperforms the others,” McDonald said.
"He's had some opportunities that he's missed on this tour in particular so that'll be something in the next week or so that we'll get our heads around. We're not in a rush to make decisions. There's too much emotion. But, as I said, he hasn't taken his opportunity on this tour."
