England's Michael Yardy close to making comeback from depression for Sussex

Yardy will step up his recovery today when he has a nets session with first-team colleagues and while unlikely to figure in the County Championship home game against Lancashire that starts on Tuesday, he could return to front line action at Hampshire next week.

That would represent the passing of a major milestone in the 30-year-old’s fight against depression that saw him return home just before England’s World Cup quarter-final last month and Robinson is certainly bullish about his skipper’s recovery.

“He is going well. Every week he has practised more. The first time he came in once and last week he came in three times and this week he was in every day, including Saturday, and so he is getting close,” Robinson told Telegraph Sport.

“I think this week will be too early. Whether he is in a situation to play the week after we will just have to wait and see. At the moment he hasn’t practised with the group but he is due to on Monday.

“We would love to have him back because he is a quality player and he gives character and backbone for a team that has that anyway but he has got experience and so we miss him, of course we do.

“But it is just like anybody being injured. You have to give them time to heal properly and what you don’t want to do is rush them back so that they have a recurrence of the injury. It’s the same for Yards.

“So we have just got to keep talking to him and keep giving him time. He is increasingly his workload and he is doing more and more as he feels stronger and more able to do it.”

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Michael Yardy's battle with depression should act as a warning to administrators, says England's Matt Prior

Prior and Yardy are Sussex team-mates and have played cricket together since childhood. Yardy’s decision to return home before England’s World Cup quarter-final due to depression surprised many, but not Prior, who knew the extent of the problems afflicting the spin bowler.

“I spoke to him when we got back [from the World Cup] and it has hit him hard,” said Prior. “We have played cricket together since we were 12 so to watch him go through that was horrific. I know he made the right decision and I am proud of the decision he made because it wasn’t easy to leave at that stage.

“I believe it shows the strength of his character that he was a big enough person to say, ‘No, I can’t carry on and I need to deal with this’. I back him wholeheartedly to come back stronger.”

No date has been set for Yardy’s return but he is training again at Sussex and is expected to feature over the next couple of weeks.

The intensive winter schedule has been partly blamed for exacerbating Yardy’s condition, which follows the international retirement of Marcus Trescothick after suffering a stress-related illness.

Prior, who played in all forms of the game for England last winter, believes changes have to be made to prevent other players from suffering burn-out issues.

“I don’t think it is any coincidence that two England players have struggled with it,” he said. “Being away from home for 5½ months is a long time and is very taxing when you are playing so much.

“You are also involved in an intense environment and for that length of time it is exhausting physically and mentally. I believe there will be more issues if you have as intensive a schedule as we have just had. There will be more cases of injury or illness and something has to change.”

The winter’s toll on Prior was physical, with a shoulder injury an unwanted memento of the Ashes series. He jarred his left shoulder during the Adelaide Test and has had injections in order to be fit for the summer. He is due to return for Sussex against Nottinghamshire on May 10.

“I am sure it will be fine but I think it is one of those things I will have to live with for the rest of my career,” he said. “The thing that hurts is what I do for a living, which is diving. It is just one of those things I will have to manage and maintain.”

Prior’s position as England’s Test wicketkeeper is assured following another consistent winter but a World Cup which featured a lack of runs may limit him to one form of the game this summer.

“There is always someone else,” he said. “I will be working as hard as I can to be involved. You can look at batting and keeping stats but I also know what I bring to the team as well and that is something I have a lot of belief in.”

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Cricket World Cup 2011: Paul Collingwood 'felt a bit guilty' over Michael Yardy's depression

Collingwood and his team-mates will return home tomorrow [Monday] after their World Cup exit to Sri Lanka, five months after they departed for Australia.

A punishing run of fixtures saw England's players lose form and fitness as the winter went on, while Michael Yardy returned home from the World Cup after struggling to battle depression.

Collingword, who did not feature for England after their defeat to Bangladesh on March 11, said: "people see the luxury lifestyle, playing sport for a living, but they don't see the dark hours stewing and thinking of family, being under constant scrutiny.

"Ten years ago, our captain, Nasser Hussain, said we were playing too much. It frustrates me that we seem to be doing even more. It's time to address these issues."

Yardy is the second England player to be forced out of competition after struggling with depression. Marcus Trescothick retired from international cricket in 2008 owing to the illness.

Collingwood told the Mail on Sunday: "The sad news of Mike Yardy's depression came as a complete shock. I didn't have an inkling, nor did I when the same thing happened to Marcus Trescothick, which shows how hard they must have tried to hide their problems.

"As someone who is close to this team, to not realise what he was going through, I feel a bit guilty that I didn't pick it up."

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