Watch what you eat

From Andy Bull’s Guardian cricket newsletter, The Spin:

The best stories are often the hardest to swallow: just take Ewen Thompson’s exploits last weekend. Unless you pay particular attention to cricket in New Zealand, you probably haven’t heard of Thompson. He is a 30-year-old left-arm seamer who plays for Central Districts. He has accrued all of two caps for his country – one Twenty20, one ODI.

Last Saturday Thompson bowled 10 straight overs in Central District’s one-day semi-final win against Canterbury. They cost 36 runs, and he did not take a wicket and could not manage a maiden, but boy did he suffer some.

After the match Thompson was rushed to the nearest hospital, put on a drip and taken in for emergency surgery. He had played the game even though he had a chunk of undigested doner kebab meat stuck in his oesophagus.

Thompson ate the kebab in question on the Friday before the match. “He is kicking himself a bit because he is supposed to watch what he eats,” pointed out Central Districts manager Lance Hamilton, “He was in a rush to eat before training and he scoffed down a kebab and obviously some meat got stuck.

“He pretty much didn’t complain too much throughout the day,” Hamilton related. “It wasn’t till later on that night when he looked awful that we took him to hospital and he ended up a drip all night because he was so dehydrated.”

“The kebab wasn’t blocking his airway, but we couldn’t get any food or water into him,” explained Hamilton. “We’ll see how he scrubs up between now and Wednesday’s match but he seems to think he will be right.”

The Spin can’t help but feel there is a moral in this story somewhere.

Source: Guardian, 16 February 2010