NickiSlater's Slats Topic

[Donny]

I see Slats had a bowl today. Very economical too !!

[NickiSlater]

Thanks commonwombat! LoL Slats had a bowl hmm 1 over how cute! Too bad he didn't score many runs.

[Donny]

Slater cool about being dropped
November 27, 2003

MICHAEL SLATER is "cool" about being dropped from the NSW ING Cup team to play Tasmania at Bellerive Oval on Saturday, chairman of selectors Brian Taber said today.

"His record in the one-day game hasn't been brilliant lately and with Michael Clarke back from the Australian side it was a bit of an awkward situation," Taber said.

"He's still in the four-day game."

Despite Taber insisting Slater "didn't have a problem" with his omission and that "he handled it well", it must have come as a disappointment to the former Australian Test and limited overs batsman, who was not available today for comment.

Earlier this month the 33-year-old set himself the challenge of returning to the top of the Blues one-day order.

He played the majority of his 42 international limited-overs matches and 74 Tests as an opener, but he's batted at No.5 in the Blues' first three ING games this season for scores of two off 11 balls, 27 from 20 and nine off 17.

"Honestly, for whatever reason, I've under achieved in the one-day game as an opener." the right-hander told AAP before his first one-day game this season.

"I'd hope to finish my career, maybe back up as an opener in the one-dayers and have an amazing season because I feel it's always been in me, but for some reason it hasn't happened."

Slater topped the Blues' Pura Cup run aggregate with 770 last season and was looking to score between 900 and 1000 first class runs this summer.

[piedys]

Will NSW at least make him 12th man?

dyso

[commonwombat]

What!!! Fancy asking M.Slater to lower himself to 12th man duties when his time could be spent so much better on the eastern suburbs latte circuit. Shame on you, Dyso, shame.

[piedys]

[commonwombat]

Dyso,

Slat's is more concerned with consuming said latte's and being the social man about town. Fancy the indignity of having to actually serve and/or deliver them!!

[NickiSlater]

Thanks for the article Donny!

[Donny]

Rare illness threatens Slater

By Adam Hawse - Fox Sports

MICHAEL SLATER is fighting to save his career and his health after being struck down by a rare disease which has forced him into hospital three times in the past week and made his right foot look "like a club foot".

In the biggest battle of his career, the dashing former Test batsman has been on a cortisone drip in Royal North Shore Hospital as an arthritis-type condition that he has kept secret for more than a decade has come back to haunt him.

The autoimmune disease called Ankylosing Spondylitis, which affects the spine and joints, was diagnosed after Slater fell from a pushbike at the Australian Cricket Academy in the late 1980s.

After several years of relative peace, Slater has been heavily hit by the disease, forcing his withdrawal from the NSW team playing Victoria in a Pura Cup match at the MCG.

"The third week I was at the Academy I got knocked off my pushbike and I struggled physically for two years with hip and back problems, and the end result was being diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis," Slater said.

"The medication I was on indefinitely through my 20s was something I'd ceased over the last few years, thinking I would never need it again because I hadn't had any problems.

"But five weeks ago I started to feel a few different things and in the last fortnight it's reared its ugly head again and it's been quite disabling to the point where my left knee, my left heel and my right ankle are just incredibly inflamed.

"It started to get hold of me when we (NSW) went to Tassie and then Adelaide. In Adelaide, I was feeling the pinch and operating at 75 per cent.

"I was wondering what the hell was going on, and I now know that it was affecting me in a big way. When it comes on it's not just physical - it brings you down and affects your mood and makes you feel ill. It's been a struggle to walk around."

The 33-year-old will be checked again tomorrow at the Royal North Shore Hospital, which he attended three times last week. On the last two visits he needed two hours on a cortisone drip.

Slater explained his famed high levels of fitness throughout his 74-Test career were to combat the condition.

"The crazy thing that not many people know is that in my first full season for NSW, when afterwards I was picked for the 1993 Ashes tour, I batted that whole year not being able to turn my neck properly because it was inflamed at the top of my spine," he said.

"I was in discomfort that whole season, yet it remains the best state season I've ever had.

"And with the 1997 Ashes tour, when I'd been out of the side and got recalled, I almost withdrew because I was having a burst of it again.

"Literally days before the plane left I had to go on hefty medication."

Few people knew of Slater's battle, including team-mates in the Australian team.

It was something dealt with privately for many years between Slater and NSW physiotherapist Pat Farhart.

It became more known when drug-testing in sport increased and Slater had to inform ASDA and team officials of medication he was prescribed.

"It wasn't something that was well known because I didn't feel the need at that point for anyone to know," Slater said. "I struggled through my 20s with it and I worked my butt off to get on top of it, but once I got it under control it was very manageable and I never really missed a day's cricket through it.

"Obviously now that's changed. I should be in Melbourne playing this latest Pura Cup game. At the moment, I'm struggling to get around and on the occasional day I've been on crutches, so fingers crossed the latest treatment is the one that works."

NSW coach Steve Rixon and chief executive David Gilbert are regularly in touch with Slater, who recognises the condition is a threat to his career.

After a slow start to the season with the Blues, he desperately hopes the latest treatment is successful so he can be back on the field in the New Year.

"Anything that stops you from playing can prove to be career-threatening, as I found when I was dropped in England two years ago," Slater said.

"If you're out of the side you're giving someone else an opportunity.

"But I'm very optimistic. I've been in this situation before and I'm confident I'll get back on top of it and be back to peak fitness shortly."

[NickiSlater]

Oh my god

[Donny]

Slats fights mystery bug

By Steve Gee - Fox Sports

SLOUCHED in a wheelchair, with his right leg in a brace, Michael Slater takes a rest from the toughest battle of his career.

As his former Australian teammates prepare for the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, Slater was in Sydney's North Shore Private Hospital fighting to stave off the degenerative effects of a mystery bug, which has made walking unaided impossible.

Slater was admitted to hospital 11 days ago amid concerns his failing health was sparked by the return of an arthritis-type condition that he has carried through his career and kept secret for more than a decade.

The autoimmune disease, called Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS), affects the spine and joints, requiring Slater to receive cortisone injections.

Slater, 33, was forced out of NSW's Pura Cup match against Victoria earlier this month when the tell-tale symptoms of the disease seemingly flared, forcing him into hospital on December 7, with his left knee and both ankles inflamed to the point that he could not walk.

Doctors initially diagnosed his condition as a return of AS, but after extensive tests this week reverted their prognosis to a mystery bug.

Taking a cigarette break before being discharged yesterday, a weary-looking Slater looked a world away from the batsman that plundered the world's best bowlers in the 1990s.

And although the 74-Test veteran has vowed to return in the new year, friends said yesterday his future remained uncertain.

"The honest answer is he doesn't know and the doctors don't know how long the rehabilitation will take," said Cricket NSW manager Greg Daniel, who visited Slater regularly in hospital.

"Best case: he could be OK to play in the latter part of the season.

"Worst case: it could be the middle of the year before he's fit enough again to play interstate cricket, so nobody really wants to make a call on it (his future) because it's probably too early to know how it will pan out."

Daniel said Slater was determined to end his career on his own terms.

"He's not at the stage of contemplating retirement or being out of the game," Daniel said.

"He's got a belief he will beat it and get back to playing for NSW."

Slater discovered he was suffering from AS two years after falling from a bike at the Australian Cricket Academy in the 1980s.

He was put on medication - a course of steroids - indefinitely during his 20s but stopped in recent years, believing he had overcome the problem.

When it first flared, the condition affected Slater so badly that he batted through his first full season for NSW - and later in the year on his Test-debut Ashes tour - unable to bend his neck.

After being admitted to hospital two weeks ago Slater said the setback would motivate him further.

"Anything that stops you from playing can prove to be career-threatening, as I found when I was dropped in England two years ago," Slater said.

"If you're out of the side you're giving someone else an opportunity.

"But I'm very optimistic. I've been in this situation before and I'm confident I'll get back on top of it and be back to peak fitness shortly."

[NickiSlater]

Yeah thanks Donny I read this in the paper today.

[Donny]

Slater's middle order invite

By Jon Pierik - FOX

MICHAEL SLATER will get every chance to overcome his health problems over winter with the Blues looking to relocate the former Test opener to the middle-order next season.

The retirement of the Waugh brothers and the expected long-term absences of Simon Katich and Michael Clarke because of Australian duty have given the state selectors much to ponder.

A one-time dashing opener who scored more than 5000 runs in 74 Tests, Slater is a candidate for the No.6 position vacated by Mark Waugh.

"I actually did talk about that to Michael before he got crook," NSW selection chairman Brian Taber said.

"If he can find his way back, we'd love to have him back."

The 34-year-old managed only three Pura Cup games this season before he was sidelined with a serious arthritis-type condition.

The selectors are keen to leave the burgeoning union of Greg Mail and Phil Jaques at the top of the order and believe a new role may help reinvigorate Slater's career, provided he can regain his health.

Dominic Thornely, who impressed the likes of Greg Chappell this season in posting 343 runs at 28.58 in six games, and Aaron O'Brien, who managed just the one Pura match, will be vying for middle-order roles.

Young Sydney University batsman Ed Cowan, the leading run-scorer in grade cricket, and Matthew Phelps also remain in Taber's mind.

Applications close tomorrow for the state coaching job vacated by Steve Rixon.

[NickiSlater]

I have my doubts about whether Slats will be returning next season, his illness appears to be very serious but obviously I do hope he will recover and be playing! I dunno if I like the sound of Slats coming in at 5 or 6 but I guess anything is better than not having him there at all. I just hope he gets better really soon and I still also hope Langer plays poorly!

[The Prototype]

So do they know what Slater has? Sounds pretty nasty, I hope he can come back and play next year.