Unlucky Weatherall hopes to avoid future injuries
Raphy Weatherall (second from left) took eight wickets in two County Championship games this season before his injury [Getty Images]
Northamptonshire fast bowler Raphy Weatherall is planning to hone his technique to avoid future injuries after suffering a stress fracture in his back for the second season in a row.
The 20-year-old was out of action from mid-August last summer and has been unable to play since April this season.
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Weatherall, who has also just completed a second year of studies at the University of Exeter, has played for England at Under-19 level and is the county's most promising young pace bowler.
"I've had a bit of a rest and I've now got three months of rehabbing and working back to fitness for the start of next year," he told BBC Radio Northampton's The Cricket Show.
"That's the focus for me, just getting as strong as possible and working on my technique a lot during the season.
"I spoke to (bowling coach) Rory (Kleinveldt) and he said I'm almost there but there's a few things I need to work on and bring them into games rather than just doing it in practice which will stand me in good stead in trying to avoid this injury in future."
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Weatherall has played 20 games in all formats for Northants since making his first-team debut in a County Championship game against Middlesex in April 2024.
Having recovered from last year's injury, he made a bright start to the current campaign by taking three wickets in each innings against Kent, but has been ruled out since the following week's trip to Emirates Old Trafford to play Lancashire.
"I started well and I felt good - I felt fit and in good rhythm for those first two games, so to then start to feel this injury is quite frustrating, especially with all the work I'd done over the winter," he added.
"I thought this could potentially be quite a big year for me and it's frustrating for it to be cut so short. (But) based on the experience I had last year, I now know what sort of recovery I need to focus on and the methods to achieve that."
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Weatherall has been advised by head coach Darren Lehmann to distract himself with other interests, including his education.
But he is intent on spending as much time around the team as possible and was at Worcester last Friday to see Ben Sanderson produce remarkable T20 Blast figures of 6-8, including a hat-trick.
"I was with some of my friends and it was starting to get a little bit nerve-wracking and then Sando comes on and takes four in an over, it was unbelievable to watch," Weatherall added.
"His experience, his ability to win games for us, is huge and I really need to learn from his craft."
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He was really heavy on the details, like safe turns in midfield, driving with the ball, being able to pick the right passes.' He also got the seal of approval from two members of the United academy's fabled Class of '92. 'In pre-season, we played against Tottenham in a five-team tournament,' Buffonge explains. 'Nicky Butt (then United's head of the academy) and Ryan Giggs (who was first-team manager Van Gaal's assistant) were there and they were really amazed by what they saw. They brought me into a room where they had computers everywhere and broke down all the touches, off the ball, what they liked, what they didn't like. It was really encouraging.' Advertisement There were some early setbacks as well, not least a torn abductor (a muscle in the hip) sustained in his third game of the season in attempting a pass to Rashford, but these were generally happy times for Buffonge under McGuinness and then Kieran McKenna, now Ipswich Town manager, who took over United Under-18s in August 2016. 'He (McKenna) was a very good coach, very thorough,' Buffonge says. 'I remember him having a book full of tactics, training ideas and (team) shape. He made sure in training that we were all doing what we do well consistently, and always winning our individual battles. He partnered us up with our opponent, so that you could see if you deserved to play or not at the end of the week. I think all clubs should do that.' Buffonge's performances in midfield saw him promoted to the under-23s — McKenna told him under-18s football was 'too easy' for him — but that brought its own problems. 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Advertisement 'No matter how hard or how well I trained, he had his group of players who he had been working with,' Buffonge says. 'I ended up just training a lot. 'I definitely experienced a difference between the 18s and the 23s in terms of the physicality, the intensity. In the under-18s, we were much more focused on our technical ability. In the 23s, it was more about, if you can run up and down in training well enough, then you can play. Which was a different kind of battle. That was a period where I didn't play much football.' Clashing over training styles is one thing but, according to Buffonge, the requirements on him went further, straying into unusual territory. 'Warren Joyce would make comments like, 'I'm gonna tell Mourinho (by then United's first-team manager) you're not gonna make your debut with him until you cut your hair.' I was just thinking, 'I don't understand. They're joking around, but I really want to play. I don't see the correlation between my hair and me playing.' 'In football, there's a lot of banter. In those times – I don't know exactly what it's like in academies now – they made a lot of jokes. But even if it was said as banter, it stuck with me because when you're fighting for your place, everything feels like a signal. 'I'm a young kid trying to get minutes, and I'm asking for guidance, and if you're guiding me to cut my hair, that doesn't really make sense. 'I remember coming home and asking my mum if I should get it cut. I did cut it a couple of months later — not fully off — but nothing changed from that point.' Joyce does not recall making that comment to Buffonge, although he accepts that style of management was part of his repertoire. He remembers Buffonge as a 'tough kid' who had quality, but that there were older players ahead of him in the queue for selection. Advertisement Buffonge says he was also docked a week's wages for getting a tattoo. 'At that time, there was a rule that no youth-team players were allowed to get any tattoos,' he says. 'I had abided by the rules until I was 18, where I'm legally allowed to get a tattoo. And I felt like getting one on my chest. It says, 'I was put on this earth to achieve my greatest self, to live out my purpose and to do it courageously.' And that meant a lot to me. 'It was for me to look at myself in the mirror on game day. Even when I'm short-sleeved, no one can see it. But I got in trouble for that. Now in the youth team at United, everyone has their tattoos, expressing themselves with their art.' Buffonge's exit from United — who told The Athletic they have consciously aimed to care for player welfare in recent years — was set in motion in August 2018, by which time Ricky Sbragia had replaced Joyce. 'The third game of that season was against Southampton away,' Buffonge says. 'Angel (Gomes) got given the role to take penalties, but in this game I won a penalty and in the heat of the moment, I wanted to take the penalty. Angel was cool with it. I scored, but I got a b****cking from the coach, which was fair enough. Next game, I was in the stands. 'I went to speak to him (Sbragia) and was like, 'Is it because I scored that penalty?'. He was like, 'No, honestly, it's come from above (within the club).' So I'm thinking, 'How do I progress from this situation?'. Sbragia confirms now that choices were made in collaboration with senior staff at United. 'That was the moment I started feeling some decisions weren't even about football anymore — it felt political. No one could tell me directly what the issue was,' adds Buffonge. 'I didn't play for the 23s for a long while after that. I was only getting five minutes here and there, and no real explanation. Weeks would go by. I'd knock on his door, 'Is there anything you want me to do in training to be able to get myself back in the team?'. I didn't understand. I was confused for so long. I remember just channelling my focus on training. Advertisement 'It wasn't until I was having lunch with some boys after training and Mourinho walks in. He was someone I had met when I was at Fulham, as his son (a goalkeeper, also named Jose) was there. He came over and said, 'DJ, I want to know why you've not been playing recently. The last game you were doing good. Are you not fit? What's the problem?'. And I told him, 'I honestly don't know.' 'Mourinho said, 'OK, now you're going to come train with us, and I'm gonna tell you the reason why I think you don't play.' I ended up training with them most of the time. He couldn't give me a reason why I wasn't playing. He said, 'If I could say one thing – never walk (when on the pitch)'.' The frustration at being left out of matches was still acute but Buffonge did benefit from training with first-teamers including Paul Pogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Anthony Martial, Juan Mata, Jesse Lingard and Rashford. 'It was quality players sparring against each other,' he says. 'But in the business of football, people don't see that development behind closed doors. You're not playing on matchday. That's where everybody gets judged. That's what I was starved of. 'The first time I ever trained with the first team, I think I was 17, 18. I've got the ball on the half-turn in midfield, lined up Phil Jones, put it through his legs and ran straight away. Everyone went crazy. He said some foul language, but it was a good touch!' Buffonge also trained with the seniors under Solskjaer, who replaced Mourinho in December 2018, but towards the end of that season, he realised there was no way back for him at United. 'I wasn't actually told anything,' he adds. 'My dad was looking after me and he said, 'Let's see if we can get a youth loan and some games before the season ends.' So that's what I ended up doing. At 20, I went to Bolton. But I had only been training, so I played, scored a goal for them and pulled my hamstring.' Buffonge's time at United ended that summer, and he moved to Spezia of Italy's second-tier Serie B, managed by Vincenzo Italiano, who is now in charge of top-flight Bologna. Adjusting to life abroad was hard, and with Italiano wanting players who could make an instant impact to help the club's promotion bid — which was ultimately successful — there was little leeway granted for a young man trying to find his way in senior football in a new country. Advertisement Buffonge went on loan to Pergolettese in Serie C, before his best run of form between 2020 to 2022 in the Dutch second division at NAC Breda, for whom he scored his only senior goal. Spells elsewhere in the Netherlands at Telstar and Emmen followed but his progress has been stymied by two surgeries in the past two years, the first for a broken kneecap, and the second for a knee meniscus injury sustained as London-born Buffonge was preparing to join up with Caribbean country Montserrat's national team. His energy at the moment is away from the pitch, working on creating a platform that he says is to 'coach young men on mindset, masculinity, purpose and motivation'. He adds: 'I'm teaching the lessons that go beyond sport — discipline, resilience; things I had to master during my time at Manchester United and beyond.' He is still in regular contact with former team-mates such as Sancho, another Londoner who went north to pursue his football dream. They met through Gomes when Sancho was at Manchester City's academy. Buffonge has watched the career arcs of Sancho and Rashford at United with interest and, while he prefers to speak in general terms, he believes players should be judged on their on-field performances. 'To bring a person's appearance, or the car they drive, into their performance, I don't think is fair,' he says. 'Players train the way they feel inside. If these players are not feeling appreciated or heard, or they're not allowed to do what they do best, they're going to feel a type of way. 'And I feel like coaches don't have the time nor the care to really figure out why a player may be training a certain way. They'll just start pointing at all these other things, kind of like a smokescreen. 'We've all seen what Marcus did at Aston Villa (on loan for the second half of last season). These players who can do amazing things have that talent living inside, but due to a lot of external factors, sometimes it can get blocked. These shots at a person's character are what can have a negative impact, which is part of the work that I'm doing now. 'People who've watched me go through what I've gone through and what it must take, on top of the fact they see what I do on the pitch, it equates to a trusted voice.'
