London: Australia batter Steve Smith has spoken for the first time since he picked up a finger injury during the ICC World Test Championship Final and provided a prognosis surrounding his return to international cricket.
Smith was sent to hospital during the third day of Australia's defeat to South Africa at Lord's after the veteran suffered a compound dislocation of his right little finger while fielding in the slip cordon.
The initial diagnosis for Smith is reasonably good, with the 36-year-old lucky to have avoided surgery and still a chance to feature in Australia's upcoming three-match Test series against the West Indies in the Caribbean.
“I will be in a splint for eight weeks now and I may be able to play with it in a couple of weeks," Smith revealed after Australia's five-wicket loss to the Proteas at Lord's.
"It will depend on my functionality and what I am able to do, so it was probably the best result I could have hoped for," he said.
Smith's injury came about when he dropped South Africa captain Temba Bavuma when he was on just two in the Proteas' second innings and the missed chance cost the Aussies dearly as the skipper went on to score 66 and feature heavily in a match-winning partnership with opener Aiden Markram, an ICC report said.
The Australian was standing extremely close to the batter when the drop occurred and was also sporting a helmet to cope with the uneven bounce in the Lord's pitch.
"I was standing pretty close with the helmet on and as we saw throughout the game a lot of nicks went short of first and second slip," Smith said.
"The plan was to stand pretty close and I lost sight of it with the angle that Mitchell Starc was bowling and it kind of went inside Bavuma's hip and I didn't quite see it until really late and it kind of dipped on me a little bit late too as well," he said.
"It was tricky, it didn't go in my hand very well and fortunately there is no break there and it just split the skin and dislocated it which made me feel pretty ill at that stage," Smith said.
The injury incident is the latest in a long set of dramas Smith has encountered at Lord's over the years, with the Australian admitting he now has a host of mixed emotions when recalling his recent appearances at the famous north London venue.
"I have a love/hate relationship with this place now," Smith stated.
"I have had some good memories here and some not so good ones as well," he said.
"Getting hit in the head by Jofra (Archer) in 2019 and now having my digit knocked off out here yesterday as well," Smith said.
"But it’s a wonderful place to play cricket and I have enjoyed it here and it was a real good game of cricket again," he added.