There's lot of work to do: New Zealand captain Kane Williamson on his recovery ahead of ODI World Cup 2023

Kane Williamson (Pic: AFP)

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson revealed that achieving complete fitness for the ODI World Cup 2023 in India remains a "tough" task, but he is cautiously optimistic as he continues to "tick off the small milestones" on his road to recovery after undergoing surgery for an anterior cruciate ligament [ACL] in his right knee.

The New Zealand white-ball captain Williamson stated that there was "definitely more movement" in the knee, but cautioned against getting too far ahead of himself.

"Yeah, good, just kind of on that same journey path really where there's been some nice little progressions and working through some of those little milestones and return to the running phase, which I am in at the moment," Williamson said of his recovery as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

"It has been nice to get back on the feet a little bit more and sort of get more into the net sessions and get slightly more involved as well. [There is] definitely more movement. I suppose that's almost the name of the game -- let's get the strength and the movement to improve throughout. It is obviously a bit of a slow journey, as a number of others are experiencing," he added.

Williamson underwent surgery in April and with less than two months to go for ODI World Cup, he is in a race against time to be fit for the quadrennial tournament.

"To be at the World Cup is always special. It's still just guesswork at the moment in terms of when the day is or how it's tracking at the time," Williamson told reporters at Bay Oval about where he stands with regard to a potential comeback.

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"There's a lot of work to do. I am just really following the program, with the professionals for physio, the support staff and New Zealand cricket. And it's tough, because you do have some good days, and then you have a few variable ones. However, something like that [World Cup] in the back of your mind is obviously motivating and you want to keep seeing those improvements," Williamson said.

New Zealand, under the captaincy of Williamson, had reached the World Cup final in 2019 where they lost to England.

While Williamson kept his options open on a possible return, he said that appearing in New Zealand's three One-Day Internationals against Bangladesh in the lead-up to the World Cup would "probably be a bit early."

"It's a tricky one - you start entertaining a few earlier targets. It is a lot about the healing element as well. You can have the strength work, the movement, the confidence, but the actual healing is what has to happen and there are a lot of things to really assess before that time. So, that [Bangladesh] series, by all accounts, is too early," he said.

(With ANI inputs)