Glenn Maxwell needs to obviously have a look at what he’s doing: Andrew McDonald

Glenn Maxwell. (Photo Source: X(Twitter)

Australian coach Andrew McDonald emphasised the importance of Glenn Maxwell managing his rest and recovery effectively after a brief hospitalisation following a night out in Adelaide last Friday. Maxwell, who has not played since Melbourne Stars’ last BBL match on January 15, was already on a break from Australia’s ODI series with West Indies due to his previous leg injury.

His next scheduled appearance is on February 9 for the T20I series against West Indies. McDonald stressed the need for Maxwell to play a responsible role in his downtime. The incident in Adelaide raised concerns about the star all-rounder’s overall well-being and urged him to prioritise fitness ahead of the upcoming challenges.

“I’ve spoken to Glenn, had a good chat with him yesterday around the incident. Him looking after himself needs to be a consideration moving forward. We’ve given him the opportunity to rest and rehab in that period of time and I suppose the lessons for him around that would be to take up his end of the bargain in that space and take care of himself,” said McDonald as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

“All the information he’s given, he’s had a few drinks and clearly the night has ended the way that it did and that’s less than ideal from his perspective and our perspective. It’s an honest mistake. He needs to obviously have a look at what he’s doing at his end and is that the right thing to be doing at that time? Thankfully there’s no harm out of it. He’s well now,” he added.

Recovery is one of biggest problems that Maxwell has had: McDonald

McDonald revealed that the decision to rest the 35-year-old from the ODI series stemmed from the November 2022 incident when he suffered a leg break at a birthday party. Maxwell, who acknowledged the need to be wiser about his management, had to return from the South Africa tour last year due to leg soreness. McDonald emphasised that such careful management would be a consistent requirement throughout ‘Big Show’s career and highlighted the importance of prudent decisions for the player’s sustained well-being and performance on the field.

“It’s a discussion we’ve had for the last couple of weeks just around where he’s at physically, on the back of that major injury he had. It’s well over 12 months ago now. But that injury hasn’t allowed him to do the things that he’s wanted to do over a period of time and recovery is one of the biggest problems that he has had, pulling up from games. He just started to flag that at the back end of the BBL,” he concluded.