The powers of recovery

Katherine Brunt launches one from the helipad during Tuesday's trip to Calais

The line 'you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone' features in a number of famous songs and you could forgive Katherine Brunt for singing those well-known lyrics after seeing her cricket career flash before her eyes two years ago.

The bustling pace bowler spent 15 months on the sidelines after sustaining a prolapsed disc in February 2006, an injury so serious she did not know whether she would bowl quickly again.

"I'd had chronic pain in my back since I was 16," said Brunt, who turned 23 on Wednesday.

"I remember when it went completely. It prolapsed during an aggressive ball - it was a bouncer at Lottie's (England captain Charlotte Edwards) head.

"I did not notice the pain during the delivery, it was when I stood up from my follow through that I realised something was wrong. Me being me I thought I could bowl through it, but the next ball came out at two miles an hour and I knew it wasn't good at all. I couldn't move properly for four weeks. I couldn't even dress myself."

Injuries are always frustrating but especially so when you are a young player making early strides in the game. After an encouring start to life with England - Brunt had played five Tests during which she took 14 wickets in the 2005 Ashes win, and 13 ODIs - she now faced a lengthy spell on the treatment table.

Despite having a positive outlook, a nagging doubt crept in with each trip to the physio.

"I knew I would come back but I did not think I would bowl quick again," admitted Brunt, who was voted Vodafone England women's player of the year in 2006, the same year she was shortlisted for the ICC women's player of the year award.

But with bundles of patience and a stubborn will to wear an England shirt again, she returned, albeit tentatively at first, and it was a personal victory when she boarded the plane to fly Down Under last winter where she helped her team secure a 3-1 ODI series win over New Zealand.

England women had a game on the helipad on Tuesday

"Looking after yourself is really important," insists Brunt. "I want a 15 or 20 year career - if I want to do that I need to keep up with my core fitness and listen to my trainers. I am fortunate to have the levels of support I do.

"I don't have the same aggression as I used to. I have to be mature about how I bowl."

Brunt was certainly hurling the ball down on the helipad of a SeaFrance ferry on Tuesday as she and the rest of the England women launched a busy summer of international cricket.

The players took part in a leisurely game while the ship docked at Calais but know the proper stuff is just around the corner with West Indies the first of three teams due on English soil in the next two months.

"I heard the West Indies beat Ireland in a one-dayer so they are not to be underestimated," said Brunt."We are really strong at the moment and confident, but we won't get ahead of ourselves."

Women's cricket in this country is staring at the most high-profile 12 months in its history. Looking beyond this summer, England travel to Australia for the World Cup in March before hosting the ICC World Twenty20 three months later which gives Brunt and her team-mates a glorious chance to capture the public's imagination.

"It's a big year," said Brunt. "It's an exciting year too, not just for us as a squad but for women's cricket too.

"In the last five years women's cricket has picked up massively, there is a lot more interest.

"Through the Chance to shine project we have been setting up teams in schools - these girls really enjoy it. They want to emulate us. I did not have that opportunity as a kid."