LONDON, Sept 1: Pakistan leg-spinner Danish Kaneria, his country’s fifth highest wicket-taker in Test history, is looking at his six-week injury lay-off positively and said on his official Bigstarcricket.com website he will use the time out of the game to increase his fitness levels so that he will enter the new domestic season in October fitter than ever.

Kaneria, who broke a finger on Aug 21 while playing for Essex, had a wire inserted into his finger last week in Karachi and has been advised complete rest for the time being, before training that won’t involve any stress on the broken joint.

“The specialist, Dr Shahid Ghani, inserted a wire into my finger behind the knuckle of my right ring finger to help mend the fracture and that will stay in there for a month,” Kaneria told Bigstarcricket.com.

“He has told me not to do any weights or think about cricket for at least a month and probably more like six weeks.

“I had to stay in hospital for one night to allow the general anaesthetic to wear off but I was discharged the next day.

“I am staying positive about the injury because these things happen in cricket. Instead of being miserable about it I am actually viewing this time as an opportunity to get myself stronger and fitter than I have been for a long time.

“Although I cannot lift weights for the short term I will at least be able to start running soon and go on the cycling machine in the gym. The good thing is that Pakistan do not have any cricket coming up so it is not as though I am going to miss a Test series. We next play against India in January.”

—Agencies