Nathan Lyon’s wife and teammates didn’t want him to come out to bat and try be the hero after he injured his calf during last year’s Ashes series.
The second Test at Lord’s turned the series in several ways — Alex Carey’s dismissal of Jonny Bairstow helped Australia secure a 2-0 lead but also galvanised the Poms for the remainder of the series, which ultimately finished tied 2-2.
Nathan Lyon suffered a series ending calf injury while fielding, and the beloved spinner broke down in tears in changeroom footage captured in the third season of the Prime Video documentary The Test.
Watch every match of the 2024 IPL Playoffs LIVE on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start Your Free Trial Today >
Playing his 100th consecutive Test, the 36-year-old had captured nine wickets in three innings before the injury as Australia went on to take a 2-0 lead.
“I’ve blown my calf to bits,” the offspinner recalled telling Usman Khawaja.
“I knew straight away. I was gutted. I was devastated.”
Australian captain Pat Cummins was initially hopeful Lyon may have been able to play on.
“He’s had cramp a couple of times before, so my first thought was I hope it’s just cramp,” Cummins said.
In The Test, Lyon revealed the dark thoughts running through his head as the seriousness of his injury set in.
“You’re thinking the worst. Is your career done? But more importantly, you’re thinking you’ve let your teammates down.
“I set a bar so high for me personally to play a massive role in this side, in this series.
“I want to be the best in the world … and I feel like I could have made a difference so I that’s where the emotion comes from.”
Steve Smith said: “We were shattered for him.”
It has always been impossible to know what the final result of the series would have been had Lyon played the final three Tests. In the end Australia struggled without Lyon but retained the iconic Ashes urn despite the series finishing 2-2.
Usman Khawaja said: “A part of me straight away was like, ‘Oh boy, this makes winning the Ashes a whole lot harder.”
Lyon’s dismissal of Ben Stokes over the weekend in the County Championship showed just how valuable he would have been for Australia in the remaining three Tests.
Despite his injury, Lyon was determined to bat in the second innings the day after he injured his calf — an idea his wife Emma was firmly against.
“The morning of Day 4 I said to Em, ‘Just so you know, I’m going to bat’. She looks at me, she goes, ‘You’re an idiot’.
“I said, ‘What you do you mean? I’m going to bat.”
“She goes, ‘You can’t even get in the shower’.”
Pat Cummins was against the idea of Lyon batting, as was Mitchell Starc, who thought it was ridiculous Lyon was even attempting to bat when he couldn’t run between the wickets.
“I said no you shouldn’t bat,” Cummins recalls in The Test.
“He’s like, ‘We’re going to have a look at it’. I was like, ‘No’.”
Lyon said: “He goes, ‘You’re an idiot’ so I got the sh*ts and hobbled over to Ronny (Australia coach Andrew McDonald) and said I want to bat.
Lyon said his reaction to McDonald giving him the all clear to bat was “thank f*** for that”.
The veteran’s mindset was: “Some days you’ve gotta go to work when you’re uncomfortable. Out you pop.”
Walking out to a standing ovation at Lord’s, Lyon ended up combining for 15 runs with Mitchell Starc – a not insignificant partnership given Australia won the match by 43 runs.
“What is going on here? This peanut’s walking out to bat,” Starc said in the documentary.
“Not walking, he’s hobbling out, using his bat as a crutch.
Lyon added: “Starcy had the sh*ts with me. He said this is ridiculous you being out here.
“I said, ‘Bear with me. Let’s try and get a couple of runs here’.”
Cummins said: “I couldn’t watch and I’ve never had that before. He’s so injured, to see him be vulnerable out there, it’s hard to watch. Ronny was the same, we were like this is not good.
“He almost played better,” Josh Hazlewood laughed.
Lyon scored 4 off 13 balls and received a standing ovation from the Lord’s crowd as he trudged off the field and hobbled up the steps to the changeroom.
“It was pretty incredible to see the reaction of the England crowd,” he said.
“They’re the type of things when you look back at your career and think, ‘Sh*t that was pretty special’.
Cummins summed it up best: “Gaz well done mate that was courageous, all of us were a bit worried but you ran out there before we could catch you.”
Lyon has since recovered from his injury, passed the 500-wicket milestone and signalled his intent to play until the age of 40.
The Test Season 3, comes to Prime Video on the May 24