Pietersen banking on pain-killers to see through Ashes

London:

With hardly any time left for him to recover from an Achilles injury in a crammed international schedule, Kevin Pietersen says he would have to rely on pain-killing injections to see through the Ashes series.

The Ashes starts next month after the ICC Twenty20 championship and Pietersen is aware he can't afford a lengthy lay-off.

"What cures it is two or three months out of the game and that ain't happening," said Pietersen.

"It's a case of managing it on a daily basis now. "I can't control when it flares up and when it doesn't but it's dealing with it and doing the right stuff that I've been doing in the last week or so," Pietersen was quoted as saying in the 'Daily Telegraph'.

Last week, Pietersen had to skip England's opening match against Holland due to his injury and the team suffered a humiliating defeat.

Pietersen was then given cortisone injection shots on Saturday afternoon to make him fit for the Sunday's tie against Pakistan. England won the match riding on Pietersen's 58.

"We have diagnosed what the problem is over the last couple of days so hopefully now we've diagnosed what we think it is, I can get better now," he said.