Australian speedster James Pattinson says that maintaining motivation is the hardest task when dealing with injury but has revealed that greyhounds played a major role in his recovery.

Speaking with Daniel Harford on ‘Harf Time’ Pattinson said that his brother Darren – himself an international cricketer with England – is a full-time greyhound trainer and during James’ spell with an injured back, helping with the dogs was vital in keeping him occupied.

“I was in a back brace for three months.,” Pattinson said on Wednesday “I think the hardest part is keeping yourself motivated when you can’t actually do anything.”

“I was lucky enough that Darren got into the greyhounds so I spent a lot of time each week travelling around with him to the tracks trialling dogs with him and taking the dogs to the races and for walks. It was about the only thing I could do, I could walk down the street with a couple of dogs.”

Pattinson, who has been back bowling for a month, has been working tirelessly on his action to ensure the injury doesn’t happen again.

“I’m half way through my preseason. I’ve had to try and address some issues with my back and I’ve been going up to Brisbane and been doing some biomechanics testing every couple of weeks to make sure my counter-rotation (that causes the stress fractures) is getting lower.

“I’ve probably got about another three months until I’m playing cricket as a bowler,” he said.

Pattinson will take the field for his local district side Dandenong as a batsmen this weekend.

In addition to making his return to cricket, Pattinson will be attending The Meadows greyhound track as part of the Big Aussie Barbie campaign in support of the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia.

“Greyhound Racing Victoria has teamed-up with the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia over the past month and has run 12 Big Aussie Barbies so far.

“We are looking to raise about $50,000 through the campaign and the last Barbie is this Saturday night at The Meadows,” the 24 year-old said.

Both Daniel Harford and James Pattinson are greyhound owners. Harf’s greyhound, Sneaky Essemess, is yet to break his maiden but has recently changed kennels and has been trialling well as he looks to return to the track in a month’s time.
[soundcloud soundcloudurl=”https://soundcloud.com/#sen1116/james-pattinson-on-harf-time” ][/soundcloud]