Has Ashley Giles made his last appearence?

By Tom Bason
April 2 2006

Ashes hero Ashley Giles may be forced to retire from cricket after yet another hip operation. Giles, affectionately known by England cricket fans as the 'King of Spain', had his first operation in December.

However, he did not recover from this as expected, and missed all of England's winter tour in India. Indeed, during England's win in the 3rd test last week Giles was under the knife in a bid to speed up his recovery time. In an interview with the Sunday Mail, Giles said that "I have to face the fact that the injury is career-threatening. The specialist thought the hip would have done most of its healing after three months but that hasn't happened. Hopefully this will give it an extra nudge to aid the growth of the new cartilage material. My targets are still the same - to get fit and to play for England again," However, there are many factors going against Giles making a come-back. The domestic season starts in just under a month, and England tour Sri-Lanka in early May. Added to this is the form of Giles replacements in India- Monty Panesar and Shaun Udal both impressing. Despite this though, there are doubts over the test futures of both of these players. Udal is 37, and is not seen as a long term replacement, while there are questions about Panesars all-round game, namely his poor fielding and batting. Giles is hopeful to play again, saying "At some stage I am going to have to take a leap of faith and try to bowl again. It may even be a case of having to play through a pain threshold to play. But if the pain was anything like it was in Pakistan, or towards the end of the Ashes, which I only managed to get through with a cortisone injection, I really don't think it will be possible for me to continue."