Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, who missed out on a place in India's one-day squad for the tour of Sri Lanka because of a hamstring injury, on Monday said he would come back fitter for the subsequent series against New Zealand.
"I am presently in Johannesburg in South Africa recovering from an injury but would be back in India on Tuesday (tomorrow) night," he told PTI from Johannesburg where he is under medical supervision for the last 10 days.
Harbhajan has been nagged by a tear in the bone joining his hamstring and groin for the last two years but the present window of no international engagement encouraged him to get rid of this physical issue.
"It was first detected in a scan during the tour of South Africa in 2006. It was then seen only as an inflammation.
"However, in Australia last year another scan showed a little tear. The doctors then advised me to keep on playing and treat it whenever there was a long break from international engagements," Harbhajan said.
With India's tour of Pakistan cancelled, the team had no international commitments for a long duration and Harbhajan felt it was the best opportunity to deal with the issue.
"I presently sensed a two-month window of no cricket in India's international engagements and duly parked myself in South Africa for its' treatment. Since then the Sri Lanka tour materialised and I could do little", Harbhajan said.
"However, I have taken the last injection of the treatment and would be back tomorrow. I was fit enough to play without break in any form of the game in the last two years and don't see any reasons why it would be any different for New Zealand. More so when I have taken the required medical help in South Africa," he said.
Since that tour of South Africa where injury first came to his notice, the feisty off-spinner has turned out in 40 one-day internationals, 17 Tests besides taking part in Indias winning campaign in the Twenty20 world cup in 2007.
Harbhajan has so far taken 314 Test and 202 one-day wickets from 74 Tests and 180 one-day internationals. Harbhajan wasn't required to go through an operation to get rid of this nagging injury.
"Fortunately, I wasn't required to go through the surgeon's knife. There is a medical process through which your own blood is extracted and injected with white cells. Quite a few rugby players in South Africa have used this method of treatment. Even Graeme Smith, the South African captain, used this process to recover from his injury," he said.
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