Common questions

Find the line that fits, then choose that name in the booking calendar.

• A new problem, or your first visit: Initial consultation, in person, or Initial consultation, online by video.
• A second opinion: an initial consultation. Bring your scan reports and the plan you have been given.
• Following up something we are already working on: Review consultation, or Review consultation, online.
• A complex problem, several areas or a full reassessment: Extended consultation.
• Late in rehab and nearly ready to play: Return to Performance Assessment. If you are new to me and still in pain, start with an initial consultation instead.

Still unsure? Call 0458 007 583. Every length and fee is on the appointments and fees page.

We start with the history, in cricket terms: what you bowl or throw, your role, your schedule, and when in a spell or session the problem shows up. Then I examine you and test what matters for your role rather than a generic normal. I explain what I think is going on, what I am unsure of, and what the next few weeks look like. Treatment starts on the day where it helps, and you leave with a written plan.

An initial consultation is 45 minutes, a review 30 minutes, an extended consultation 45 minutes, a Return to Performance Assessment 60 minutes and Sports Injury Screening 45 minutes. Online, an initial consultation is 45 minutes and a review 30 minutes.

How many you need depends on the problem, how long it has been there and what you are returning to. After the first appointment I give you an honest estimate and tell you what would change it. Some people need one or two appointments and a plan to follow. Others need regular sessions over several weeks.

Yes, after every appointment, in person or online: what to do, what to stop, the milestones, and what has to be true before you progress. It is written so you are able to share it with your coach or S&C coach if you choose.

• Shorts, or clothing you are able to move in.
• Your cricket shoes if the problem involves bowling, running or fielding.
• Scan reports, and the images if you have them, plus any letters from your doctor or surgeon.
• Rough figures for your bowling over the past six weeks: matches, nets and overs. This is more useful than most people expect.
• Your health fund card, to claim on the day at the Richmond clinic.

For an online appointment, have a few metres of clear space and somewhere to prop the camera.

Give at least 24 hours' notice to cancel or move an appointment. Late cancellations and missed appointments might incur a fee of up to the full appointment cost. Genuine emergencies are considered individually. The same terms apply to both practices.

If you are running late, call or text 0458 007 583. The appointment might need to finish at its booked time so the next patient is not delayed, and the full fee still applies.

The full terms are in the Bridge Road cancellation policy.

No. You book directly. A GP referral is only needed if you are using a Medicare Chronic Disease Management plan, which is accepted at the Richmond clinic. WorkCover, TAC and DVA claims are not accepted.

Yes. I am a physiotherapist registered with AHPRA, registration number PHY0001614815.

• Initial consultation, 45 minutes $180
• Review consultation, 30 minutes $140
• Extended consultation, 45 minutes $180
• Return to Performance Assessment, 60 minutes $250
• Sports Injury Screening, 45 minutes $250
• Initial consultation, online, 45 minutes $150
• Review consultation, online, 30 minutes $120

These match the booking calendar. Fees are paid at the appointment by EFTPOS, Mastercard, Visa or American Express, and your receipt is issued by The Cricket Physio.

Appointments and fees explains what each appointment covers.

At the Richmond clinic, eligible extras rebates are processed on the spot through Tyro Health, so you pay the gap. Bring your health fund card. Your rebate depends on your fund and level of cover. For online appointments, check with your fund before booking whether it covers telehealth physiotherapy.

Memberships are different. Assume the membership fee is not claimable: funds rebate individual consultations, and a membership is not itemised that way.

Medicare Chronic Disease Management plans are accepted at the Richmond clinic with a valid GP referral, and a gap applies. Ask before booking an online appointment under a care plan.

WorkCover, TAC and DVA claims are not accepted. If you are claiming under one of those schemes, contact me and I will point you towards a service that accepts it.

Performance and Integrated Performance members receive 20% off in-person appointments and assessments (initial, review and extended consultations, Sports Injury Screening and the Return to Performance Assessment) while their membership is active. Essentials members receive 20% off telehealth injury triage, Sports Injury Screening and Return to Performance Assessment. There is no routine in-person treatment discount at Essentials.

Member rates apply to appointments booked and attended while your membership is active. In-person appointments are at Bridge Road Physiotherapy, 507 Bridge Road, Richmond. Member rates do not combine with junior pricing or any other offer.

Member rates in full

Bridge Road Physiotherapy, 507 Bridge Road, Richmond VIC 3121, inside Uplift Gym. Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm. Weekends by prior appointment, and selected public holidays by request.

Get directions

• Look for the 507 sign beside the glass double doors.
• Come in through the main Uplift Gym entrance. You do not need a gym membership.
• There is no reception desk. Take a seat near the entrance and I will meet you at your appointment time.
• If the door is locked, call 0458 007 583 and I will let you in.

• Bridge Road: two-hour paid parking, with the first hour free. A clearway applies in the afternoon, so check the signs.
• Palmer Street, behind Bridge Road: free one-hour and two-hour parking.
• Trams 48 and 75 run along Bridge Road and stop close to the clinic. The nearest train stations are a long walk.

If you have access requirements, tell me before the appointment and we will work through the entrance and the space.

I run both practices from the same clinic in Richmond, inside Uplift Gym. Bridge Road Physiotherapy is the clinic for sport and everyday injuries, and every in-person appointment, cricket ones included, is booked and invoiced through it. The Cricket Physio is my cricket practice: online appointments, Sports Injury Screening, the guides, memberships, club packages and team consulting, booked and invoiced as The Cricket Physio. Either way, you see me.

Yes, through Bridge Road Physiotherapy: backs, necks, shoulders, knees, running and gym injuries, and the general run of things.

A video appointment, 45 minutes for the first one. Choose Initial consultation, online in the booking calendar and you get a short questionnaire beforehand. I take a detailed history, watch you move through tests I set up on camera, and send a written plan afterwards.

It suits workload problems, stalled rehabilitation, return to bowling and second opinions. How telehealth works

Video misses what touch and a close examination find: tenderness, swelling, joint stability, and the finer strength and nerve tests. It does not replace imaging or a medical review. It is the wrong choice for a new injury that needs examining, severe pain with no clear cause, or anything with numbness, weakness or pins and needles.

For workload questions, stalled rehabilitation and second opinions, the examination adds less than the history and the plan do. If your problem turns out to need an in-person examination, I will tell you in the appointment and sort out the fee rather than carry on regardless.

By video, the same way. A good share of this work is with players on tour or in programs where local support is thin. Fees are in Australian dollars, and you book online. Check the time zone in the calendar when you pick a slot, or tell me your schedule and I will find a time that is not the middle of your night.

I work alongside your local doctor or physio, because anything that needs examining, imaging or hands-on treatment has to happen where you are.

A phone or laptop, a few metres of space, and somewhere to prop the camera. If you have a resistance band, a step and a ball, have them nearby. I will tell you beforehand if anything else helps.

No. Diagnosing an injury without a history and an examination would be guessing, and guessing about an injury is how people end up bowling through something that needed stopping. Book an appointment instead. An online consultation works if you are not in Melbourne.

Yes. Young fast bowlers are the group where back pain matters most, because growing spines under bowling load behave differently to adult spines. Under-18 memberships are priced lower, from $65 a month.

Yes, in person or on video, and for players under 18 a parent or guardian should come along. A coach is welcome too, with the player's agreement. For under-18 memberships, a parent or guardian completes the onboarding and gives consent.

This is general guidance, not a diagnosis.

1. Stop bowling for now. Not reduce. Stop, until someone has assessed it.
2. Batting and fielding are often fine, which keeps a young player in their season. Confirm with whoever assesses them.
3. Book an assessment. A first episode of one-sided back pain in a young quick is best seen in person.
4. Write down the last six weeks of bowling, nets included, before memory rewrites it.
5. Tell the coach early.

See a doctor promptly for back pain at night that does not settle, fever or feeling unwell. Go to an emergency department for new numbness around the groin, leg weakness, or any change in bladder or bowel control.

The full guide for parents: back pain in junior fast bowlers.

Yes. Cricket Australia publishes junior pace bowling guidelines with match and training limits by age group. Treat them as a ceiling, not a target, and count net balls against them too. A bowler in a growth spurt, or coming back from a break, often needs to sit under the limit for a while.

No. Most of the people I see play club, school or pathway cricket. The reasoning is the same whatever level you play: work out what the tissue tolerates, work out what your role demands, and close the gap. A Saturday afternoon bowler with a sore back has the same injury as a professional with a sore back. The difference is the schedule around it, not the tissue.

Yes. A ball in the nets loads your back, side and shoulder much as a match ball does, and a hard net session at full pace is match load by another name. Nets are the overs most systems forget to record, which is why a bowler's load often looks lower on paper than it is. Count every ball, matches and nets, and note how hard you were bowling. The free Bowling Workload Tool logs both.

Rarely. Action is sometimes a contributor: counter-rotation of the shoulders relative to the hips has been linked with lower back injury. But plenty of bowlers with imperfect actions bowl for twenty years without a back injury. Load, growth, previous bone stress and a crowded schedule usually explain more, and they are easier to change than an action.

Back pain in fast bowlers

A normal scan rules some things out. It does not rule everything out. An X-ray often misses early bone stress, and even an MRI depends on timing and on the question it was asked. Pain that keeps returning when you bowl still means something needs working out: the load, another structure, or a return that moved too fast.

Do not bowl through it. Book an assessment and bring the report, and the images if you have them.

No, because no screening test does that reliably. Testing is useful for setting a baseline and measuring change against the demands of your role, which is a smaller and more honest claim.

With your agreement, I talk to them directly or send them the plan. I work alongside the people already involved, not around them. I do not order imaging myself: when a scan would change the plan, I explain why and your doctor arranges it. A coach hears what needs to change in training and why. Your medical details stay between us unless you say otherwise.

• Appointment notes sit in my clinical record in Halaxy. It is one record whichever practice you book through, and the Bridge Road privacy policy covers it.
• Bowling and soreness data you log sit in the Bowling Workload Tool. Who else sees it, such as a coach or a club, is set by the consent you give, and you withdraw it whenever you choose. For players under 18, a parent or guardian gives that consent.
• Club packages report individual clinical detail only for players who have agreed to it.
• Enquiry forms arrive in my inbox by email and are not stored by this website.

The privacy policy has the detail.

• The Bowling Workload Tool is free. You log your bowling and see the trend. Nobody reviews it but you.
• Player memberships add me. Essentials, at $79 a month, gives you tools and automated monitoring. Performance adds individual clinical oversight. Integrated Performance adds weekly review and individual S&C. Apply for either, or find your level in up to five questions.
• Club packages cover a squad of up to 20 for a six-month season, paid by the club. Ask for details, or find the right package.
• Team consulting is scoped to a program: injury surveillance, workload systems, return-to-play pathways and department reviews.

Compare the options

• Essentials, $79 a month: tools, programs and automated monitoring. Best for players who want better systems without ongoing one-to-one clinical management.
• Performance, by application: individual clinical oversight. Best for players managing an injury, returning to cricket, dealing with recurring problems or wanting regular expert oversight.
• Integrated Performance, by application: ongoing high-performance management. Best for players wanting ongoing management of workload, rehabilitation, physical preparation and communication across their support team.

The full inclusions, and what each level leaves out, are on the player memberships page.

• Essentials. Minimum commitment: none. Cancelling: any time before your next billing date. Upgrading: any time. Downgrading: not applicable.
• Performance. Minimum commitment: 1 month. Cancelling: any time before your next billing date, after the first month. Upgrading: any time. Downgrading: at the end of the billing period.
• Integrated Performance. Minimum commitment: 3 months, then month to month. Cancelling: 30 days' notice after the initial 3 months. Upgrading: not applicable. Downgrading: at the end of the billing period.

Pause with notice. Your place is held for pauses of up to 4 weeks. Longer pauses do not guarantee a place if that level is full when you return.

Start anyway. The plan is built around your fixtures and training days, so the assessment fits between matches and the reviews follow the season as it happens. Mid-season is when many problems show up, so it is a common time to start.

It depends on the level. Essentials includes strength and warm-up libraries you follow yourself. Performance plans rehab and preparation around the equipment you have, and a gym widens the options. Integrated Performance includes individual S&C, so regular access to a gym matters most there.

Juniors are welcome. Players under 18 join with a parent or guardian, who completes onboarding and gives consent, and they pay the under-18 price. For young fast bowlers, Cricket Australia's junior pace bowling guidelines sit inside the plan.

Apply on the player memberships page: two short steps, about five minutes. I read every application myself and reply as soon as possible. Performance and Integrated Performance then begin with a suitability check and the 60-minute assessment. Essentials begins with a payment link and onboarding.

Yes. Injury surveillance, bowling workload systems, rehabilitation and return-to-play pathways, and reviews of sports science and sports medicine departments. Use the team enquiry form rather than the booking calendar.

A club package is a fixed-price season of support for a club or academy squad of up to 20 players: fast-bowler monitoring, player assessments, case reviews and education, across a six-month season. It is priced on enquiry. Team consulting is for professional teams, governing bodies and larger programs, and it is scoped to the problem.

Club packages or team consulting

Use the club enquiry form for a club or academy, or the team enquiry form for a professional team or organisation, not the booking calendar. I reply myself, as soon as possible, to set up a short call. Leave individual players' health details out of the form.

Nobody is able to promise that, and I will not. What a package does is pick problems up earlier and plan bowling load on purpose, so fewer problems arrive as surprises. Whether that turns into fewer missed matches depends on the squad, the season and whether the plan is followed.