Stuart Broad has revealed that England's players are "heartbroken" by Jonathan Trott's return home from the Ashes tour with a stress-related illness but insisted they will bounce back for the second Test in Adelaide.
As Trott rejoined his young family at home in Birmingham, eight of his team-mates spent a night at Uluru (Ayers Rock), the Aboriginal spiritual home, re-energising after the defeat in Brisbane and finding respite from the constant Ashes sniping that has characterised this trip.
The warm welcome the players received here must have been a relief from their life under siege by the -Australian press in Brisbane, where the local paper devoted nine pages to gloating over England's defeat yesterday.
"We spend 270 nights a year in hotel rooms. It is a testing environment when things aren't going well," said Broad, who revealed the team were told of Trott's departure on Sunday night after the first Test finished.
"The first thing to say on that is the team are heartbroken Trotty's had to go home. He gave us a lot of solidity in the No 3 spot. But the important thing is we're very supportive of him and we're on the end of a phone when he needs us.
We all hope he gets home and gets some privacy and the help he needs with his recovery. We're fully behind him because he is a valuable and integral member of this team. He needs that privacy, but he's got huge support back at home and here in Australia."
There have been harsh words -spoken among the team since the 381-run hammering in Brisbane with the senior batsmen believed to have held a meeting after the Test to thrash out the issues of facing this hostile Australian attack. Broad was brutally honest about how some of his team-mates performed in Brisbane.
"There'll be some guys who know they didn't perform to the level expected of them in international cricket and will have to do better in Adelaide," he said.
"We need to get our plans and skills right going to Adelaide. I think it will be very different to Brisbane in terms of the pitch and we need to focus on getting right for it."
The team stayed at the Ayers Rock Resort, where they watched sunset at Uluru and had a boomerang throwing demonstration which inevitably became competitive among the players, with Jonny Bairstow impressing the local experts.
The trip ended with a camel ride to Uluru at sunrise before the players flew back to the Outback town of Alice Springs, where they will prepare for the second Test in Adelaide next week with a two-day match against the Chairman's XI.
"I think this team is very good at focusing on the cricket when that time arises. Although the -changing room's thoughts are with Trotty at the moment, we need to get back to training at Alice Springs this week and we've got a huge task on our hands," Broad said.
Mitchell Johnson, one of England's biggest tormentors in Brisbane, underlined that point by rejecting any notion of a truce next week. "I think it's worked for us," the fast bowler said, when asked about Australia's hostile attitude.
"I definitely think they're rattled by it. They don't like it at all. Obviously their coach has come out and wanted a truce from what I've heard. That's not going to change from our end."
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