Vlaeminck, the 24-year-old fast right arm from Australia, suffered instability in her left shoulder while bowling for Australia A in a 50-over match against England A on Sunday, the last match of their tour which ran alongside the early stages of the Women’s Ashes .
She will be assessed further when she returns to Australia in a few weeks and we hope the issue is just a minor glitch in what was otherwise an encouraging return to action after a lengthy battle with a foot injury.
Vlaeminck was one of the fastest bowlers in the women’s game before she suffered another stress fracture in the navicular bone of her right foot, keeping her to two T20 World Cups on either side of the ODI edition in 2022. of her 24 appearances for Australia during the 2012-2022 Women’s Ashes.
Some 18 months later she played for Australia A in a T20 at Loughborough on 21 June and took a wicket. She claimed three more wickets, one in each of her next three matches for Australia A – a T20 followed by two matches of 50 over – but was injured during the last of these at Guildford, bowling just 2.4 overs for figures of 1 for 23.
Vlaeminck has worked closely with Cricket Australia and Cricket Victoria, remodeling her action to prevent a recurrence of her foot injury, and also worked with the Australian Ballet to develop strength in the area. Previously, she had undergone two knee reconstructions, a dislocated shoulder and a partial anterior cruciate ligament strain.
Following Vlaeminck’s comeback match in June, Shawn Flegler, Cricket Australia’s Female High Performance and Talent Manager, said that while it was tempting to hope she could feature in one of Australia’s two upcoming Tests, in India against the end of the year and against South Africa in Perth in February that was not a priority.
“We’ll just focus on white-ball stuff for now,” Flegler said. “That’s all I said to her. Let’s get through that. She needs to rebuild confidence that she can get through two games, and get her through a tour, and keep evaluating as time goes on.”
Australia A won the three-match 50-over series, while England A won the T20s 3-0.