He can remember when the back began sending out painful signals. It was before the naming of New Zealand's World Cup squad in late January.
Neesham's omission was a major talking point. As it happened, he might have played little part in it anyway had he made the squad of 15.
"I had been struggling with a few niggles and soreness in the month or so leading up to that announcement," Neesham said. "The major moment was in my first game back for Otago. It really gave way and became unmanageable."
His options were either surgery or prolonged rest. He opted to stay away from the surgeon's knife, which he thinks now was the right decision.
Neesham rested up for the first couple of months before slowly getting back into exercise routines and, eventually, cricket specific drills.
Getting his batting skills back were by far the easier of the two main requirements.
"With the sort of batsman I am, the less technical work I've done the better. I came back into the nets and was hitting it well from ball one. Bowling has been completely different.
"I've made a couple of small tweaks - not remodelled my bowling action, but a couple of slight differences."
The lack of outdoor training facilities in Auckland hasn't helped but steadily he got himself back up to speed.
A conversation with coach and selector Mike Hesson shortly after the recent tour of England ended was encouraging.
"He was pretty understanding where I was at that time. I couldn't give him a 100 per cent guarantee that I would be ready (for Africa).
"We had another conversation about a week ago, revisited those topics and he was pretty confident."
Neesham admitted if he was asked to play today that would be a stretch. However another training block before the team leaves New Zealand on July 23, plus a solid week's camp at Potchefstroom before the opening game against Zimbabwe on August 2 should have him in good shape.
Neesham admitted he'll need to watch himself initially. The temptation will be - as it will with speedster Adam Milne, who is also returning from a lengthy break - to go hard from the off.
But he's familiar with that situation. All through his rehab, when he got the green light on a new activity he learned to take it gradually. He has detailed bowling work loads to adhere to and he's not about to push beyond what is sensible.
Neesham's best performances for New Zealand have come in the test arena. Two centuries in eight tests, and average of 43.28 are significantly superior to Anderson, although the situation is reversed in ODI cricket. He's a clean striker who doesn't appear to suffer lack of confidence at the crease.
New Zealand have three tests in Australia in November and he wants to be in that mix.
He's not running down the importance of the African trip, indeed he had targeted this tour to be back in the middle.
"If I missed this it would be a tough ask to come back with the Aussies first up on the calendar. Hopefully by the time our home season comes around then I'll be right back into the swing of things."
