Kevin Pietersen Will Be Back Stronger Than Ever, Says Ryan Sidebottom

Ryan Sidebottom was the last England player to be laid low by achilles trouble. Not as famous an achilles perhaps as Kevin Pietersen's, but as he searched for the form at Scarborough yesterday that might win him a recall against Australia, Sidebottom had good reason for sympathy.

Sidebottom has shared a dressing room with Pietersen at Nottinghamshire and England, and has seen his passionate responses to success and disappointment. "He will be very emotional," he said last night. "But he has been a big part of England cricket and he will be back as strong as ever."

For bowlers, injuries are a fact of life, and often pass barely unnoticed. For a high-profile batsman like Pietersen, a serious injury jolts the nation. "I suppose KP has had similar problems to me," Sidebottom added. "He has had a bad back and injections in his back and now an achilles. Like every top player, he has played a lot of cricket. He is a big-game player and he wants to play in the Ashes.

"He will be highly disappointed, but you are always going to have injuries even as a batsman, and he will be behind the boys. It was a massive all-round team effort at Lord's and that is what will be needed from now on.''

Ian Bell is the man expected to fill Pietersen's shoes, the ultimate test of character of a talented batsman yet to live down the image of boy-man.

"There will pressure on whoever comes in – Belly, who has been playing really well, or whoever – and they have to do the business," he added. "You can't rest on a 1–0 lead. But the momentum is with England, who showed a lot of character after Cardiff."

Resentment will run high in some quarters over Pietersen's involvement in IPL. Both he and Andrew Flintoff have had operations since signing £1m deals in Twenty20, and have attracted criticism for not opting out of the tournament so close to the Ashes. Flintoff, it now appears, could be the more fortunate of the two.

Sidebottom defends both. "When you are earning large sums of money in those tournaments you will come under some criticism anyway, even without injuries coming into it, but I don't think that will bother the likes of KP. Guys like him have to play all forms of cricket, and earn a living. He has been a big part of England cricket. No one can take that away from him."

When he bowled for Nottinghamshire at the start of the Yorkshire innings, Sidebottom began by nipping one away from Jacques Rudolph then bringing one back to have him lbw. After two balls it was possible for him to dream that his own achilles injury has not entirely ruled him out of this Ashes series. For Pietersen, though, the adulation is temporarily over.