Abu Dhabi, Nov 9 (IANS): Ahead of the first semi-final against England, New Zealand captain Kane Williamson on Tuesday said that his elbow injury has been a bit of a challenge for him and he is refraining himself from over-hitting at the nets in order to keep himself fresh for the remaining matches in the ongoing T20 World Cup.

The elbow complaint has been a long-standing one for Williamson, forcing him to miss the ODI series at home against Bangladesh, the start of the first leg of IPL 2021 in India in April, the Edgbaston Test against England, and the inaugural Hundred.

The injury flared up during the warm-ups in the lead-up to the T20 World Cup. But, the Kiwi captain managed through alright so far in the tournament proper, despite playing three afternoon games inside five days.

"That (elbow) has been a bit of a challenge for me personally. And the balance between the loading of the elbow and things like that to try and stay as fresh as possible for the game. So it's a bit of a delicate balance to get my head around," said Williamson.

"I certainly look forward to the day that it's gone and I don't have to worry too much about it. But as it stands, it's a topic of discussion, and just trying to work closely with the physio to make sure in the games you're as fresh as possible. But it's had an impact on loading, therefore meaning training has been a little bit... a lot less, to be fair," he added.

Kiwi head coach Gary Stead also said that Williamson's stints at the nets have been limited although he prefers to hit a lot of balls at training.

"Kane's good at the moment. He hasn't probably trained as much as he would have liked. But that's just making sure that the time when he's batting, hopefully, that's in the middle for us and winning games of cricket that he's not overdoing the elbow and probably training for him is the chance of making it worse," said Stead.

"We've managed that well and I think that's the mental challenge for Kane -- to work that out as well," he added.