Worcestershire skipper Daryl Mitchell has been working 12 hours a day with the club's medical team to try and ensure he is fit for tomorrow's Natwest T20 Blast quarter-final with Hampshire at New Road.
Mitchell suffered a hamstring injury when batting during the Royal London One-Day Cup match with Surrey at the Kia Oval nine days ago.
County first team physio Ben Davies says it is the type of injury that usually requires two to three weeks before a player can return to action.
But Mitchell's determination to play, and the expert work of Davies and fitness and conditioning coach Ross Dewar, has given the 31-year-old a realistic chance of being available to lead the side in their first ever home T20 quarter-final.
Here Ben Davies explains the programme of events Mitchell has been put through in an effort to try and ensure he will be in action tomorrow evening.
He said: "We assessed him on the field at The Oval and, Mitch being Mitch, didn't want to come off and he said just 'tell me if I can get through' and I said 'yes.'
"I said 'you've probably got a little strain or tear but if you want to carry on and bat with a runner that is fine and we will assess after the game.'
"We assessed him straight after the game and probably thought he had a grade one-two tear of his hamstring muscle.
"Usually you need at least two to three weeks to get that back from that so we were thinking 'you are going to struggle for the Notts game and it is going to be a push for the quarter-final to be honest.'
"But we iced heavily for the first 48 hours, did a lot of tight compression, and then got him onto an anti gravity treadmill at The Spire Clinic in Droitwich.
"We got him on that two days post injury and got him running again at 20 per cent of his body weight which was real helpful just to get him functional moving again.
"He was fine and completely pain free. Since then we've done a lot of dry needling-soft tissue work.
"Dewsy (Ross Dewar) has got him working on his trunk strength, we've done massage and therapy ball work with him, and been getting his functional movement going again as quick as we could and a gradual build-up to running.
"We got him up to 100 per cent body weight again through a gradual programme.
"He had a hit (with the bat) and did some controlled fielding on Wednesday and he'll do some fielding practice and have a hit on Thursday and, if all goes well on Thursday, he will be straight in Friday and play."
Davies added: "Ideally we would have liked two to three weeks but, a home quarter-final and your captain, you've just got to push to try and get him fit.
"Bumpy (Director of Cricket Steve Rhodes) was desperate for him to be fit and Daryl has been in since half seven every morning with us trying to get fit and has been doing 12 hours a day pretty much with mysef and Dewsy.
"Our job is to get that player as back as quick as we can, keep the coaches happy, keep the player happy. It's a calculated risk but we've done all we can to make sure he is fit to get through the game.
"I'll still be a little bit nervous Friday when he is going out to bat and field but if we can get him through and back from a hamstring tear in 10 days, myself and Ross will be really pleased with what we've done with him."
