Squash: Marshall's rebellion within

Iain Fletcher meets a player who was at his peak when his body cried 'enough'

The world looked good to Peter Marshall back in September 1995. He was the world's No 2 squash player, the new season was about to begin and he was getting ever closer to the aim that had consumed him for years - toppling the great Jansher Khan as the No 1.

He walked into the British Olympic medical centre one day as an athlete at the top of his chosen field - a successful and driven man. What he learned there drove him to the edge of despair.

He was told he had developed chronic fatigue syndrome and that he would have to give up squash, probably for a year. But there was a rider, the words that every sports person fears most - "but unfortunately you may never play competitively again".

Chronic fatigue syndrome is not an injury. It is an intangible; a rebellion by the body and the mind - the very vehicles that have taken their possessors to the top in the first place. The body experiences a debilitating shut- down and screams for rest. "I couldn't believe it," Marshall, now 26, said last week. "I'd only gone to the doctor because I was losing to players that I shouldn't have. Suddenly he had taken away this huge part of my life. What is chronic fatigue syndrome anyway? It's so vague. Apparently I had played through glandular fever for the previous two months and my body was exhausted and now I had to stop, possibly for ever."

And it was this thought that plagued Marshall through the next period of his life. "The first couple of months were very hard as all I did was sit at home resting and getting bored. I tried not to get too down but occasionally those words would hit me - 'never play again'. I even joined a college and started studying A-level biology."

Trying to understand what had afflicted you? "Not really" he replied, unconvincingly. "I've always been interested in it."

A singular man. He tried to do some light training after three months, but by the following June his spirit had finally broken and he disappeared to the Greek islands for a two-month sojourn on his parents' boat. "I suppose you could call that my getting away from it all stage," he said. "I relaxed, windsurfed and forgot about squash." On his return he picked up a racquet for the first time in 11 months and crossed his own personal rubicon. "It felt really weird. I had no timing, no strength and lost all reading of the game but I felt ready and it was time to see if I was still Peter Marshall, squash player.

"But," he emphasised, "I never expected it to be easy." Helped by playing numerous practice matches with the England No 1 and world No 5, Simon Parke, himself recently fully recovered from testicular cancer, Marshall plotted his comeback. Increased training and three hours on court every day led up to his first competitive match in January this year - a comfortable victory against a lowly ranked club player. A wild card for the British Open and his first real test duly followed. "I lost to Brett Martin in the first round and was really disappointed," he said. "Looking back I can't think why. It was just a culture shock from before when Jansher had been my target and I used to get really annoyed if I lost a final."

Since then his fitness has started to return and he is enjoying his role as a man to be taken seriously again. Having been wiped from the world ranking list Marshall, who is something of a phenomenon on court with his double-handed technique for all shots, was forced to qualify for tournaments, and already he has started to upset the high- ranked players. He defeated the world No 2 Rodney Eyles in August at the Hong Kong Open before losing in the quarter-finals, and in the United States Open three weeks ago he again beat Eyles before losing to his friend Parke in the semi-final.

"I'm coming back but I struggled in the latter stages of these tournaments for fitness," he explained almost apologetically, as if reaching these stages were not an achievement in itself. "I suppose I'm happy just to win games at the moment but if I felt I wasn't going to be at the top then I wouldn't bother. For years Jansher was my target and it would be pointless to settle for less just because I'd been ill."

The comeback story's next chapter will be written at the World Open in Malaysia at the start of November - Jansher will be missing - and then England defend the world team championship, a title they won without him in 1995.

"That was hard, but right now I need a good World Open to increase my ranking further and hopefully get into the top 16," he said. And then? "I get back to where I was - No 2 on the way to No 1 and then I stay there winning as many tournaments as possible."

No bravado, just a statement of intent delivered matter of factly by a man who refuses to be deflected from his purpose - by anything.