The Ashes: Pain barrier may prove too high for Craig Overton in Melbourne

Overton discovered the extent of his injury following scans to diagnose the pain he felt in his chest after diving awkwardly to try to take a spectacular caught-and-bowled in the Perth Test.

He was then advised by England’s medics to be careful how he dived for the remainder of that match, which ended in an innings defeat for the tourists as Australia regained the Ashes.

Overton admits the temptation to try to recover for next week’s showpiece Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, but with a potential recovery time of up to two months should the risk backfire and a final Ashes Test in Sydney as well as Spring series in New Zealand to consider, the 23-year-old may have to sit and suffer.

“It’s a hairline fracture at the minute,” he said, before revealing possible repercussions of another blow in the same place.

“It could have made it worse or punctured a lung or something.

“That’s why I was making sure I didn’t dive too much on it because then it could break properly and you could probably puncture a lung.

“I was controlling the diving a little bit, trying to stay on my knees as much as possible.”

However, Overton admits that temptations do not come much bigger than the Boxing Day Test.

“The draw of playing in that game will be absolutely massive,” he added. “But I think you’ve also got to be realistic.

“There’s another game after Melbourne, and then the New Zealand Test series as well – so it’s the bigger picture, not just one game. There’s quite a lot of swelling in it, so we’ve been dealing with that.

“We’ll wait and see, but I hope three or four days will help.”

Because he has been brought up to battle through whenever possible England may have to put their foot down for Overton’s own good.

Overton was taught not to flinch, first of all playing with his fellow Somerset bowler and twin Jamie as they grew up in Devon, and then as he progressed in county cricket too.

“It was by my parents, (and) obviously the background at Somerset,” he said.

“We’re fighters down there, so that’s the way we play our cricket.

“Growing up as a kid, with Jamie hitting me, it was, ‘Get on with it’ really – and you don’t show too much pain.”