KL Rahul has undergone surgery for a sports hernia, in Germany, and said that the process was "successful". Return to action is likely to take time, but the "road to recovery has begun", he tweeted on Wednesday night.
The usual timeframe for an athlete to return to full activity after a sports hernia surgery, with proper therapy and rehabilitation, which Rahul is expected to undergo at Bengaluru's National Cricket Academy, is between six and 12 weeks.
Hello everyone. It's been a tough couple of weeks but the surgery was successful. I'm healing and recovering well. My road to recovery has begun. Thank you for your messages and prayers. See you soon pic.twitter.com/eBjcQTV03z
— K L Rahul (@klrahul) June 29, 2022
Rahul led new franchise Lucknow Super Giants to the playoffs of IPL 2022, ending the competition as the second-highest run-getter with 616 runs in 15 innings at an average of 51.33 and a strike rate of 135.38. Only Jos Buttler scored more runs than Rahul.
But he was subsequently left out of the squad for the home T20Is against South Africa shortly after the end of the IPL, with "a right groin injury" cited by the BCCI as the reason. Kuldeep Yadav had also been left out of the side, because of a hand injury, and the BCCI had confirmed that Rahul and Kuldeep would report to the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru, where the medical team would "assess them further and decide on the future course of treatment". That was on June 8.
Rahul had been named the captain of that side after regular captain Rohit Sharma, as well as Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah were rested for the series. Rishabh Pant was named captain after Rahul had to pull out, as the series ended 2-2 with the last match ending in a no-result. More recently, in Ireland, Hardik Pandya led India to a 2-0 win in the two-T20I series. Rahul was not considered for selection for the just-concluded tour of Ireland or the Test match in Birmingham, which starts tomorrow.