Beth Mooney is set to play in the Women’s Ashes Test ten days after fracturing her jaw in two places and being forced to subsist on a liquid diet as she continues to recover from surgery.
Mooney completed her pre-match preparation with a full nets session on Wednesday afternoon and all signs are that she will open the batting for Australia in her fourth Test match.
The surgery left Mooney with plates and wires in her jaw and having to take food almost exclusively through a straw as she strives to maintain energy levels and consume sufficient nutrients ahead of the four-day Test.
“Kate [Beerworth] our physio and Pip [Inge] the ‘doc' and dietitian have been coming up with some meal plans for her to make sure she's getting enough energy,” said Australia captain, Meg Lanning.
“And obviously, with the Test match being the longer format, you need to have that over a long period of time, but they've done a great job and, so far, so good.
“She's able to eat unlimited amounts of ice cream, so she's pretty happy with that!
“And it's soups and milkshakes and thick shakes and stuff like that.
“But yeah, everybody has been doing the best job that they could and ‘Moons’ has coped really well so she'll be ready to go.”
While Mooney has been cleared to play by the medical team, she has been working with the coaching team to ensure her confidence levels have sufficiently returned after she was hit in the jaw facing throwdowns with a sidearm in Adelaide.
Following surgery last Tuesday she was back in the Adelaide Oval nets, firstly receiving soft underarm throws before progressing to gentle shorter balls.
Mooney appeared eager to return to normal training in Canberra and was back in the nets facing Australia’s bowlers as well as coaching staff using sidearms at Manuka Oval.
Coach Matthew Mott, who delivered the ball that broke Mooney’s jaw, seemed almost nervous while sending the ball down but Mooney encouraged him numerous times.
“It's pretty incredible,” Lanning said. “You know, right from the moment Moons got hit she was pretty positive about the whole situation and yeah, to be coming back to play international cricket around a week after having jaw surgery is pretty inspirational for the group and she's been really positive around everyone and she looks really good in the nets and in the field as well.
“So she's confident she'll have no issues moving forward.”
