George Garton

Finished with 1-57. Bit of an onslaught from a man called Powell. Which I think is like Smith in England, Davies in Wales and Singh in India, if I may be so brave. I included a variety of races there so as to hopefully offend every one.

It's a shame, if he'd been a little bit less expensive he'd probably have got another game but I can't see them risking him in the decider now, doubt Mills will play either since he's been well off the boil in both games. Ridiculous decision to bat Salt at 7 again after his debut knock.

A sad tale of woe and frustration.

After his bowling performance for Southern Brave last night,
he seems to have forgotten how to bowl too.

George Garton's Battle with Long Covid

www.espncricinfo.com/story/george-garton-s-battle-with-long-covid-id-walk-two-minutes-and-sit-down-for-half-an-hour-because-i-was-out-of-breath-1328529

I enjoyed the read and felt very sorry for the lad. Alarming that he would be talking about retirement. As a forum we are quick to criticise, but it is clear he has really struggled with an illness we still know very little about. Wishing him all the best in his recovery.

The Tinpoint 100 compaetition is destroying Garton's cricket career.

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/62541362

Astonishing interview with George Garton in the Telegraph. In light of what is revealed it is remarkable that he was able to play any cricket at all last summer. Wishing him all the best for a successful return to Hove this year.
www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2023/01/05/george-garton-interview-said-had-long-covid-got-wrong/

Complete George Garton Interview From 'The Telegraph'
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What a fascinating and insightful interview, especially when it suggests how the Covid vaccine was close to destroying another professional sports person's career. Blood clots, on occasions leading to death, is becoming more and more accepted as a vaccine side-effect. George is a brave man to have come through his nightmare ordeal. Roll on the 2023 season. He will be mentally a lot stronger a person.

"They said I had long Covid ... they got it wrong" 

(Exclusive: The England hopeful is determined to play for his country after overcoming a health scare)



(pic: Telegraph)

In the space of six dizzying months in 2022, George Garton went from realising his childhood cricketing dream to the nightmare of seriously contemplating retirement at the age of 25.

The rollercoaster has thankfully since taken another upward turn and, after a summer spent trying to play through what is now believed to have been an undiagnosed blood clot on his lung, the Sussex all-rounder is back and will next up this week with the Joburg Super Kings in the newly formed SA20 franchise in South Africa. “I feel great - 100 per cent,” says Garton, who credits a chance meeting at his grandmother's 90th birthday party with Dr Rob Galloway, a clinical professor in emergency medicine at the Royal Sussex Hospital, for setting him on the road to recovery.

The story began back in January when, following a second bout of relatively mild Covid, Garton was selected in the England T20I squad for the series in Barbados and received his first international cap. A holiday to the United States followed but then, upon returning to England and resuming training in Hove, it became obvious that something serious was wrong. The harder he worked, the worse he felt. Just getting up to make a coffee left him short of breath.

The three-minute walk from his home to the County Ground would feel like running a half-marathon. His heart-rate was surging and an attempt simply to bowl one over prompted a virtual panic attack. “It was like running into a brick wall - my body started shaking quite violently and I thought I’d pass out,” says Garton, who was promptly taken for a series of tests with a cardiologist that included an MRI scan and a 48-hour ESG.

Nothing was found, leading medics towards an unsatisfactory hypothesis. Long Covid. But what does that actually mean?



(pic: Getty)

“When someone says ‘long Covid’, you are not sure what is wrong,” says Garton. “It’s seems to be a blanket statement. It’s, ‘Oh I feel tired’ but everyone can feel tired and, even though it was such a different fatigue, it doesn't feel like a proper injury. “With almost all other injuries, there is a time-frame. If it’s two days or two years, our brain can process it. That was the worst thing. I was being told that they were 99 percent sure I’d get better but no one knows. I was just waking up every day hoping I would feel alright.” Garton tried to battle on and, in the circumstances, it was remarkable that he should have played at all last summer.  He even turned in a man-of-the-match performance in taking 3-7 against the Welsh Fire but, after batting for two hours to score 52 against Middlesex, his heart-rate was still above 100 bpm some four hours after he had finished playing.

“I tried but it was the worst season of my career,” says Garton. The mental and physical distress had pushed him to the point where he was contemplating a life after cricket. “Within yourself as a sportsman, you know your 100 per cent and, if you can’t do that, it’s more torture to keep playing than not do it at all,” he says. It was later in the summer, however, that he attended his grandmother’s 90th birthday party. She had spent more than 40 years working as a volunteer at the Royal Sussex and among those who had joined the celebration was Dr Galloway, who she had known since he was a trainee doctor. “I spoke to him about how I was feeling, going through every single event and, at the end, he said, ‘I don’t think you had long Covid’.”

Garton says that Dr Galloway thought it particularly unusual that he should have apparently recovered from both bouts of Covid before the wider symptoms of fatigue kicked in. A professor of haematology was also consulted and the strong belief now is that Garton actually had a blood clot on his lung. “Two risk factors for a blood clot are a lot of flying and, apparently, Covid can give you sticky blood,” says Garton, who says that the new diagnosis fits every symptom, especially a typical six-month period before even a fit, young body clears a lung clot and you again begin to feel normal. “It was a huge weight off my shoulders because I’d been worrying about this unknown thing that I would potentially never get better from,” says Garton who, from September, has been incrementally building his training to the point now where he feels “the strongest I have ever been”.

He says that Michael Yardy, the former Sussex academy director and now England U19 coach, who is also a qualified psychologist, was another huge influence last year. “To think I’ve been playing all that time with a blood clot was actually quite an achievement irrespective of how I performed,” he says. “My mindset has changed massively. Before I was maybe a bit naive with my training, and what I wanted and how much I wanted it. To have such a period out, feeling so bad and thinking I might not be able to do this any more, my hunger and desire to make the most of the opportunity is through the roof. Mentally it’s made me a lot stronger and determined to achieve what I want rather than just expect things to fall into place.” And what are those goals? “To be as good as I can be. I want to play all three formats for England but, firstly, make sure my performances with Sussex are up to scratch.”



(pic: Telegraph)

To have had a taste of international cricket, and to have seen up close the intensity and competitiveness in training, as well as learn what he calls “life lessons” from senior players like Jason Roy, Eoin Morgan and Virat Kohli, has also only piqued his appetite. Garton stresses that “post viral fatigue is a real thing and lots of people are suffering with it” but that “there has to be other people who have been put under this blanket statement” of long Covid.  “Please try and find the cause,” he says. “Now I have been diagnosed with a potential blood clot, it's completely changed my mindset. I can turn a page and I‘m just really excited to get out playing and doing what I love.”