Nine days after surgery for broken jaw, Beth Mooney set for one-off women’s Ashes test

PTI, Jan 26, 2022, 2:06 PM IST

Canberra: Three metal plates in her face, a wire on her bottom teeth and on liquid diet after a surgery to fix her broken jaw just over a week ago, Australia keeper-batter Beth Mooney is geared up to make the playing XI for the one-off women’s Ashes Test against England starting here on Thursday.

Mooney was injured while batting in nets nine days ago and while speaking to ‘SEN Radio’ ahead of the one off Test in the multi-format series, spoke about how she coped with the massive setback.

”(The medical staff) were pretty adamant to me not long after we got the diagnosis that we could aim for the Test match,” Mooney said.

”We went and got a 3D CT scan of my skull, and there were two clear breaks pretty much straight down my chin, and then where the ball hit the side of my face, there was another clear break down the side there.

”I’ve got two plates in my chin and one near my ear and a few screws. I don’t think you can speed up a broken bone, it’s going to be broken for five more weeks, but it’s certainly a lot more comfortable now than it was a week or so ago,” she added.

The only worry for Mooney is how she would keep up with the physical intensity of the match given her diet right now is made up entirely of soups, ice creams and milk-shakes.

”She said she’s able to eat unlimited amounts of ice cream,” captain Meg Lanning was quoted as saying ‘cricket.com.au’.

”So she’s pretty happy with that. Otherwise it’s soups, a few milk-shakes and thick shakes. It’s pretty incredible. Right from the moment she got hit she was pretty positive about the whole situation. ”To be coming back to play international cricket around a week after having jaw surgery is pretty inspirational for the group.” A win in the match would give Australia the Ashes trophy as they lead the series 4-2 on points after claiming the T20 series 1-0, where each win is worth two points. The other two matches were abandoned due to rain because of which both teams got a point each.

They will a three-match ODI series after the four-day Test.