Lucknow Super Giants skipper KL Rahul said on Friday that young pacer Mayank Yadav might have to cool his heels in the dugout for some more time to recover from a lower-abdomen niggle.
Giving an update on Yadav, whose tearaway pace has rattled many batters in IPL 2024, Rahul said, "Mayank is not too bad; he looks good, feeling good but we also want to make sure we don't rush him back in too early.
"He's young, we need to protect his body. He's itching to go, we just have to pull him back a little, maybe a couple of more games, before he comes back," KL Rahul said.
Earlier, LSG had expressed confidence that Mayank would regain full fitness before the home game against Chennai Super Kings on April 19.
Mayank, who became an overnight sensation by consistently bowling at 150kmph plus on his IPL debut, had gone off the field after bowling just one over against Gujarat Titans on Sunday.
"He felt a little bit of tightness at the top of his hip leading into the last game, but that was about a one-out-of-ten pain, and we thought that they were clinical signs," LSG head coach Justin Langer had said.
"Everything through the doctors and the physios seemed perfectly okay. He bowled that first over (against Titans) and started feeling something in his hip. But we had an MRI scan, and there is a very, very small swelling in there. So we are very hopeful he'll start building himself up and be back bowling again soon," added the former Australian opener.
Langer gave a fitness update on left-arm pacer Mohsin Khan, who has missed the team's last two games due to injury.
"He's out there bowling now. He had a little bit of disc flare up in his back. He and Mayank are very important to us. He's gone through all the treatment - it's really good to have an excellent medical staff. He's bowling today in the middle," he said.
"He might be available tomorrow, but more than likely - and hopefully - we'll be looking at the Kolkata game, where that extra pace will be valuable. But he's on the right path - fingers crossed," he added.
- With PTI inputs
