A recent study by Auckland University revealed that fast bowling puts the same strain on the body as a minor car crash every single ball.

It also revealed a bowler puts up to eight times their body weight through their knees, back and hips every delivery, similar to the force a rugby player’s body endures in a scrum.

Think of doing that roughly 60 times per 50 over game or perhaps 120 times or more a day in first-class or Test cricket, not including warm ups and nets. It is no wonder you do not have to tell Reece Topley the toll of such physical exertion.

Topley is just 25, but has endured four stress fractures in his back (two separate breaks that have subsequently recurred) and not bowled a ball in competitive cricket since last July when he had to undergo another operation putting on hold a promising career that included 16 games for England before the age of 23.

He signed a white-ball contract with Hampshire last summer, but even that lowered workload made no difference. He had to inject a hormone in his stomach daily and once a month had an anaesthetic in his spine.

He has since left Hampshire after playing only 21 games in three years and chose to go unemployed as a free agent in order to take control of his own recovery from this latest injury.