Glenn Maxwell: "I did think I might not play cricket again" after breaking leg

While he is unlikely to make Australia's tour of India in February, Maxwell is expected to make a full recovery from his injuries - which at one point in the early days after the incident felt a long way off

Glenn Maxwell has revealed he feared he would not play cricket again in the immediate aftermath of his freak leg break last year.

Maxwell fractured his fibula in an accident at a 50th birthday party in mid-November. 

The allrounder was subsequently ruled out of most of the Australian summer, but is now on course for a return to club cricket next month.

While he is unlikely to make Australia's tour of India in February, he is expected to make a full recovery from his injuries - which at one point in the early days after the incident felt a long way off. 

"That first week in hospital was pretty difficult," he said during coverage of the Big Bash encounter between Adelaide Strikers and Melbourne Renegades on Tuesday (January 10).

^{Glenn Maxwell is recovering from a broken leg [Getty Images]}

^{Maxwell sustained the injury at a birthday party in mid-November [Getty Images]}

"I did think that I might not play cricket again. There were those thoughts while I was in hospital, looking at my leg, and it looked like a balloon. I did have those thoughts.

"The next week, I thought it was going to be a lot easier being at home, not having the nurses there and not having the constant pain medication - but that was probably the most pain I've ever been in; just trying to get around the house was awful."

Maxwell has spent much of the subsequent two months trying to accelerate his recovery, regularly icing his leg and spending "three or four hours each night" in a Game Ready compression machine. 

"I've done everything in my power to try to get ready for it and get myself back playing," he said.

"I tried to start using it as a motivational factor rather than 'why has this happened to me?'"

"There's still a fair way to go but I'm really proud of how much work I've put in, day and night. I've had a lot of sleepless nights, nights sleeping on the couch will pillows all around my foot and ice packs shoved into my boot, icing through the night to make sure I can get the swelling down.

"The joint was so swollen and tight, it was like having two blocks of wood nailed together, so there was no real movement. I had to teach myself to get the courage to walk."

A positive mental attitude has been a key element of his rehabilitation, and Maxwell is now even more determined - at the age of 34 - to make the most of the remainder of his career.

^{The allrounder is soon set to return to the nets [Getty Images]}

^{Maxwell hopes to play club cricket before the end of the Australian summer [Getty Images]}

He said: "I started looking forward, thinking 'I'm going to make the best possible recovery, I'm going to come back early, I'm going to be stronger than ever'.

"I tried to start using it as a motivational factor rather than 'why has this happened to me?'"

So when can we expect the Big Show to be back in town?

Well, Maxwell has already started playing golf again, and will this week pick up a bat in anger in the nets. 

But he is not going to jinx his comeback by predicting too much.

"I should be playing cricket this year, that's for sure," he said. 

"I haven't set a date on it yet. I'm really proud of how I'm going each week and I'm taking it week on week."

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