There have been sleepless nights: Sachin

Sachin Tendulkar admits that dealing with his recent injury has been a mental struggle.

LONDON: Sachin Tendulkar says mental battles with his latest injury caused him sleepless nights and days full of frustration even as he raced against time, but in vain, to catch the flight to the Caribbean.

"Your thought process changes. When you have a fit body, you think differently, but when you're not 100 per cent fit, or you've just overcome an injury, then your mind works differently," Tendulkar said in an interview to the latest issue of 'Cricinfo' magazine. "Thinking is everything in this game. It's hard to express what it's like, but there have been sleepless nights, there have been days full of frustration where you just want to get back in action but the body doesn't cooperate even if your mind is ready to go out there and do it. You have to be sharp enough to pick up those signals."

He says he has learnt to adapt to the constraints imposed upon him by the rehabilitation process. "It's not like a fracture where you know it'll heal in four weeks," he says. "There are times when you spend some time in the middle and the body complains. That's when you need to hold back a bit and take it easy for a couple of practice sessions."

But along with frustration, there is also a sense of resigned acceptance. "If you're unlucky, you'll get injured, even if you're the fittest guy in the world. (But) what I don't want to lose is the desire to get back in action and the hunger to go out there and perform. When you're constantly attacked by injuries, it's not easy to start thinking like a 24-year-old with a fit body."