OVERSEAS star Ryan McLaren admits he has never known anything like Hampshire’s injury crisis.

The former Kent and South Africa all-rounder took 4-74 as Hampshire shrugged off their catalogue of sprains, breaks and strains against Middlesex at The Ageas Bowl.

With another ten-day break set to provide some respite after next week’s match against Lancashire at Old Trafford, the 33 year-old is hoping his injured teammates will soon be back.

McLaren said: “The freakishness of the injuries is what stands out and I’ve never seen the computer analyst and coach on the field, like we had at Yorkshire.

“We’re going to have to have our fingers crossed and hopefully stick around and stay strong until the guys are back fit and firing.

“Ideally you’d be in a situation where you can rotate the bowlers and keep them fresh for the rest of the competition.”

McLaren believes he is close to his best form.

He added to his day two scalps of Nick Gubbins and Nick Compton by uprooting a couple of off stumps in successive overs yesterday.

“I had a bad spell in Yorkshire on the first afternoon but I feel like I’m hitting the crease a bit better now,” he said.

“You don’t always hit your straps straight away but I’m happy with how it’s gone in this game.

“I did a bit of work in the week with the run up and my rhythm is a better now.”

Hampshire were frustrated by a wicketless first session, as Middlesex added 182 for the fifth wicket.

“They made it tough in the first hour,” admitted McLaren. “Ideally we’d have taken a couple of wickets but we had to grind it out for the rest of the day.

“I thought the wicket would have deteriorated but it played better on day three than it did on the first two.

“So it’s been tough work from a bowling point of view. But if you try and hit the wicket hard [the ball] starts to misbehave from a bounce point of view. That’s what we’ve taken from the first two games here.”