dillon pennington is delighted to have put his injury frustrations behind him after making his first senior appearance of the season in this week’s specsavers county championship match with derbyshire at kidderminster.
pennington was looking to build on last season’s promising first team breakthrough when eight championship appearances yielded 22 wickets and some highly encouraging performances, most notably against yorkshire at scarborough and surrey at New Road.
a foot injury was followed by an ankle ligament setback in pre-season training and then bad weather hampered his back to bowling programme with the seconds.
but pennington is fit now and showed glimpses of his potential and capabilities at chester road and is included in the squad for tomorrow’s game at durham.
he said: “how is the ankle? really good. the body was a bit sore from bowling a few overs but everything is pretty sound.
“i feel really good and i’ve loved being back bowling and it’s great to have a crowd (watching).
“i got back from the injury and the weather held me off a little bit in terms of my overs. i’m fully fit now. i bowled 30 overs in two days (at kidderminster) and still felt pretty fresh and good.
“it has been frustrating after last season but everyone gets injuries and i just had to wait for the right time to be back.
“benny (ben davies) and dewsy (ross dewar) have done a fantastic job to get me back this early really and playing first team cricket.
“i’m fully fit and thankful to be able to bowl the overs i have this week with no aches and pains really. i’m looking forward to the season.”
pennington added: “i loved last season. it was brilliant and that is why i was itching to get back and so keen to get my rehab perfect and keep my fitness as good as possible so i can try and emulate what i did last year.
“i think i bowled okay at kidderminster. it’s still early days. i still haven’t bowled that many overs and i’ve still got a lot to come and my rhythm has just been getting better and better.”
