Bears Confirm Stone Injury

7 August 2019, 15:01

Birmingham Bears have confirmed England pace bowler Olly Stone will miss the second Ashes Test after being ruled out for at least a fortnight with a back injury.

Stone, who suffered the injury in training on Tuesday, joins fellow pacemen James Anderson and Mark Wood in being ruled out of the Lord's Test.

Warwickshire sport director Paul Farbrace told the county's website: "It's really disappointing for Olly that he's been ruled out of action for such an important two weeks of cricket because of a reoccurrence of his back injury.

"At the moment there's a bit of inflammation, but he will undergo a scan later this afternoon so that we know the full course of treatment that he can undertake with the club's medical team and with the support of the ECB.

"In the meantime, he needs to rest up before he can get his body strong again and ready to deal with the demands of being a fast bowler."

Stone, 25, made his Test debut against Ireland last month and was in the squad for the first Test at his home ground Edgbaston, but did not play in the heavy defeat by Australia.

He would have been back in contention at Lord's, with Anderson ruled out until at least the fourth Test.

The third Ashes Test at Headingley begins on August 22, making Stone's availability for that match highly unlikely.

Jofra Archer, another fast bowler with fitness issues, took six wickets and hit a century for Sussex's second XI on Tuesday to press his case for an Ashes spot.