The preparation of England for the iconic Ashes series has suffered a major hit as the fast bowler Tony Roland-Jones has succumbed to a stress fracture in his backbone. He will be out of the action for 8-12 weeks which means that the pacer will not be able to take part in the Ashes down under starting this November.
While playing for Middlesex against Lancashire in the County Championship, he suffered the injury and had to walk off the field. He will now miss the entire season. The County side is currently at the 3rd spot in the Championship behind Essex and Lancashire. Even though the fast bowler received the injury, his side went on to win the match.
Middlesex confirmed the injury through a tweet and also released a statement that he will take no further part in the domestic season for the team.
The statement read, “Middlesex Cricket are extremely disappointed to announce that the result of the medical scan which Toby undertook yesterday has revealed that he has a stress fracture in his L5 vertebra (lower back), which will mean that he will take no further part in the domestic season for Middlesex.”
The tweet read, “BREAKING: Sad to announce that @tobyrj21 will miss the rest of domestic season with a lower back stress fracture…”
BREAKING: Sad to announce that @tobyrj21 will miss the rest of domestic season with a lower back stress fracture… https://t.co/lmviSAoIX2 pic.twitter.com/bqsCBe3fLG
— Middlesex Cricket (@Middlesex_CCC) September 22, 2017
An impressive start to Test cricket
Toby Roland-Jones had recently made his debut for England while playing against South Africa. In his very first Test, he bagged a five-wicket haul. So far, the 29-year-old has featured in 4 Test matches for the country in which he managed to pick up 17 wickets at an average of 19.65.
The selectors would have certainly had him in the consideration for the English squad for the Ashes series after his impressive start to the Test career. But now, the selectors will have to look for other options to choose from as his replacement.
