How six men plotted to rebuild injury prone paceman James Pattinson James Pattinson says he was surprised by his re-call to the Australian one-day squad after returning from a long injury lay-off. James Pattinson has rebuilt his action in a bid to avoid injuries. THE FIRST meeting of the James Pattinson Return To Bowling committee was convened in the bowels of the MCG during a Sheffield Shield match in late October. Present were Australian bowling coaches Craig McDermott (Tests) and Ali de Winter (ODIs and T20), team physio Alex Kontouris, Victoria's high-performance manager Tim McCaskill, Bushrangers bowling coach Mick Lewis and Cricket Australia's Centre of Excellence coach Troy Cooley. Input from strength-and-conditioning and sports science experts was also sought. It was like having a Formula One car and you've got this pit crew who are all working to help him perform at the best possible level. They're all working together for the common goal," said Victorian assistant coach Simon Helmott, who will coach Pattinson's Melbourne Renegades in tonight's Big Bash League derby against the Melbourne Stars. At the meeting the boffins pored over footage of Pattinson's bowling action and agreed upon a couple of minor tweaks to his technique that they felt could reduce the strain on his body and minimise the future risk of injury. "The two things that caught our attention were his back foot landing and his arm path," McCaskill said. We noticed that as he was searching for pace he was taking the ball further and further behind his body, which we didn't want him to do. His back foot had got a little straighter than it should. He's not a traditional side-on bowler but we were looking to get his foot (pointing) around to 45 degrees. Afterwards we sat with James as a group and mapped out how we thought the program would look. He bought in and away we went. Fourteen weeks earlier, Pattinson, 23, had broken down with a stress fracture of the L4 vertebrae during the second Ashes Test at Lord's. After three weeks of complete rest, he had eased back into exercise with pilates sessions, building up to some strength work, cycling and swimming and, eventually, running. At the start of November he took his first tentative steps at the bowling crease. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at about 7.30am he would front to the MCG indoor nets for sessions with McCaskill, a former Carlton bowler whose own career had been cut short at the age of 26 by stress "hot spots" in his back. "He would have a set allocation of balls to bowl," McCaskill said. It started at three overs and built up from there. Because a lot of it was shadowing through those slight modifications, he might have been in the nets for an hour - jumping over cones and that sort of thing - even though he might only actively release 18 or 24 deliveries. The main trait they were seeking to eliminate from his action was "counter rotation" in the delivery stride, where the shoulders are in a more side-on position relative to the hips. McCaskill felt it might help explain why Pattinson had succumbed to several injuries in his short career. Since receiving his baggy green from Andy Bichel before a Test debut against New Zealand at the Gabba in 2011, Pattinson had twice missed chunks of cricket with back problems (twice), a foot stress fracture, an abdominal strain and a side injury. He was not the only young Australian tearaway to have broken down. Mitchell Starc (23), Patrick Cummins (20) and Jackson Bird (26) were in similar stages of rehab from back stress fractures. In mid-December all four travelled to Perth to have their actions scrutinised in the WACA Ground nets by Cooley and fast-bowling great Dennis Lillee. McCaskill is among those who believe the spate of injuries can be attributed to more than simply technique. "They talk about 25 as being the age when bones have hardened," McCaskill said. The thing that we have seen over the years with young bowlers, it doesn't matter how strong they get themselves, if the bones are soft they will break. Kontouris agrees: "History tells us when you get to 25 you're not immune to injury but your chances of getting injured and the frequency, particularly with the bone injuries, become lower and lower." Helmott is singing from the same sheet: "I have a philosophy that while we have pre-seasons for cricketers, with fast bowlers your pre-season goes for about five years." Cricket Australia's physical performance coach, David Bailey, also noted that each time a young quick had broken down it usually coincided with a period of heavy workloads and short breaks between toil. He said a generation of pacemen had been blessed to have Shane Warne essentially operating from one end during Tests - "and it can't be underestimated how much that helps" - which explained why the current Australian coaching group was so keen on having an all-rounder as a genuine fifth bowling option. Pattinson had his first bowling hit out with seven overs for Premier Cricket club Dandenong last month, before his impressive return to frontline cricket with seven wickets - and more importantly a display of raw pace and swing - in two games for the Renegades last week. He is now in the discussion about the upcoming tour of South Africa. Whether that is a realistic goal will be determined by this month's limited-overs series against England, given there are no Shield games before the Australian squad departs. "During the ODIs block he'll be able to ramp up his overs behind the scenes," McCaskill said. The most he can only bowl in those matches is 10, but they'll be managing his workload underneath that, so that he's not underdone if selected for the tour of South Africa. Bailey is convinced Pattinson will do whatever work it takes be available for the first Test at Centurion on February 12. "He's a got real appetite for physical work, sometimes you actually need to pull the reigns and tell him to back off," Bailey said. I think once James gets through this he puts himself in a really god position to play Test cricket for the next 10 years.