Well-known Squashers in December Injuries
Dec 22, 2004, by Rob Dinerman; SquashTalk Independent News Service © 2004;

Jackman, Page, Edwards Among Casualties

The late autumn months have seen several prominent squash stars succumb to injuries of various sorts, all of which will prevent the players involved from returning to action anytime soon. In December alone both Cassie Jackman, a former (1999) world champion and two-time British Open finalist and former USSRA CEO Palmer Page sustained major injuries in the late rounds of popular tournaments.

PAGE OUT FOR SEASON
Page ruptured his right Achilles tendon while maneuvering for left-wall court position in the final round of the Morris Invitational, a member-guest handicap doubles tournament at the Apawamis Club in Rye, NY. He and his partner Gary Yeager were ahead of Cynthia Kempner and Tim Wyant 13-8 in the fifth game, their victory seemingly a foregone conclusion, when Page suffered this mishap and had to default. In the wake of successful re-attachment surgery at the Hospital For Special Surgery in Manhattan the following evening, Page hopes to be able to return to action next fall.

JACKMAN OUT FOR GOOD
Jackman, by contrast, has decided to retire from the WISPA women's professional circuit, in which she currently holds the No. 2 ranking, after her twice surgically-repaired back betrayed her yet again, first in Qatar three weeks ago, when she had to be rushed to the hospital due to severe mid-match breathing problems that she correctly suspected stemmed from her back condition, and then at the World Open the following week in Kuala Lampur, where her left leg "went dead," as had happened when her first disc injury occurred in the 2000 British Open. Faced with the prospect of undergoing another discectomy after a herniated disc was diagnosed, Jackman, recently remarried and turned 32 just this week, reluctantly decided to end a career that burst into prominence with her victory in the 1991 World Junior championships and was highlighted not only by her World Open crown and British Open performances (which included advances to the 1999 and 2003 finals) but by her attainment of the No. 1 WISPA ranking as recently as this past February, her 28 overall WISPA tour titles and her stirring comeback win against Carol Owens in the final of the 2003 Weymuller U. S. Open in October of that year, the event in which Jackman emphatically announced her return from her 2002 operation back into the top ranks of the women's game.

GRAINGER, EDWARDS SIDELINED
Page and Jackman have been joined on the DL by the latter's WISPA colleague Natalie Grainger, who became ill in her Qatar quarter-final and had to withdraw both from that match and from the World Open event; former WPSA hardball No. 2 Ned Edwards, who tore knee ligaments while competing in a doubles tournament in Santa Fe and will also need to have an operation; and left-wall women's doubles stand-out Elizabeth Del Duca, who separated her shoulder while playing this past weekend that will keep her out for the remainder of the season.

BERG HOBBLED
In addition, ISDA top-five performer Viktor Berg badly sprained his right ankle in early November in the opening round of the Big Apple Open in New York, forcing him and partner Josh McDonald to default their match, but he fully recovered in time to participate in the Cambridge Club Doubles 12 days later, reaching the final with partner Martin Heath and coming within a single point of winning the entire event in an 18-17 fifth-game thriller against Damien Mudge and Paul Price.

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