"I'm Done..." - How Physio Nick Jones Pushed Glenn Maxwell To Play Historic Knock

Australian batter Glenn Maxwell took the cricketing World by storm with his miraculous innings against Afghanistan in the ICC World Cup 2023. The all-rounder won his side game from the jaws of defeat and entered himself into the record books.

Glenn Maxwell slammed a magnificent unbeaten 201-run knock and powered his team to the semi-final of the tournament. His innings came at a time when Australia were tumbling at 91/7 while chasing 292 runs. The all-rounder although lucky early on, made Afghanistan pay for dropped chances.

What made his innings even more special was he was down with cramps and could hardly walk. Despite being in tremendous pain, he batted magnificently well and played some glorious shots with minimal footwork, that awestruck many.

However, the real hero behind Glenn Maxwell’s knock was Australia team physio Nick Jones. He played a great role in batter scripting history as he continuously made an appearance on the field and treated the all-rounder well.

Nick Jones talked about how he kept Glenn Maxwell calm despite him being in pain. He revealed his conversation with the batter, saying that he motivated him to keep going. Speaking to cricket.com.au, he explained:

“From there it was obvious we were fighting a losing battle. That’s not unusual – we see this a lot with lots of different players – but the more running you do, you’re bringing (cramps) on more regularly and more quickly. I was going out pretty regularly and I was just trying to keep him calm, trying to down-regulate everything, manage his heart rate and be as assuring as possible.

“(Jones said to Maxwell) ‘We’ve seen this before, we know what this looks like – I think you’re going to be able to do this. If we can keep you as upright as possible, you’re going to be able to keep going from now’.”Then he went down like he was free, lying down like a dead man on the floor.”

Nick Jones further added that Glenn Maxwell told him he can’t bat anymore and he will retire. He added even skipper Pat Cummins told him to go off the field and get treatment. He elaborated:

“I got out there and it was his right calf, his left hammy and a few other areas that were all cramping at the same time. While we were giving him a bit of a stretch out, it was in that moment he said, ‘I’m done here. I can’t keep going. I need to come off and retire.’

“Patty was like, ‘go off, get some treatment and you can always come back later’. That is reasonable in some situations. But in that one, from my end, if you take someone off in that situation when their system is already depleted, and you sit them down and cool them down – you’re not getting them back up.”

AUS vs NED: I think we made the right call in terms of keeping him out there – Nick Jones on Glenn Maxwell

Nick Jones remarked how he pushed Glenn Maxwell to stay there in the field. He revealed that he told him to minimize his feet moment and added that it was the right call for them to keep the batter out. He explained:

“Their body shuts down. They often go into full body cramps and you’re often not able to get any level of function out of them. He was struggling big time but I said to Glenn initially, ‘look, I think your best bet is to get you up off the ground. You’re lying down, other things are going to cramp, we need you up on your feet, we need to stretch the key muscle groups that are going.

“But if you stay on your feet and minimise your running, I think you can stay out here. I think that’s your best bet’. I explained that to Patty … we need to keep him out there and keep him going. The way it played out from there was absolutely amazing and well beyond anything I expected he could do. I think we made the right call in terms of keeping him out there,” he concluded.