Ollie Robinson is set to undergo a scan on a sore left ankle on Monday as the seamer became the latest injury worry for England ahead of a Test against Ireland and the Ashes this summer.
Concerns were raised when Robinson remained off the field as Sussex took the second new ball on day three of their LV= Insurance County Championship Division Two match against Glamorgan at Hove.
Robinson headed for the pavilion before lunch, having bowled an eight-over spell in the morning session – despite already feeling some discomfort at the base of his lower leg the previous evening.
Sussex head coach Paul Farbrace revealed they had been coordinating with England to use Robinson for one stint on Saturday morning before withdrawing him as a preventative measure for the rest of the day.
The former England assistant coach said: “Ollie has a sore left ankle and he will be scanned on Monday to see how bad he is. We knew it was sore (on Friday).
“We got one spell out of him this morning and he tried his hardest. It was a long spell and he got stuck in. He knew it would be one spell and one spell only and then he was off, that was it for the day.
“It was precautionary. There was no point in making it worse. It’s walking more than the running in. He was all right running in down the slope. It’s a joint decision between the Sussex medical team and the England medical team.
“(As) much as we want him out there bowling and taking wickets it’s not fair on him to make the injury worse, so there was good conversation last night and again this morning.”
Robinson, who revealed he had a pain-killing injection in his back before the start of the domestic campaign, took career-best match figures of 14 for 117 for Sussex at Worcestershire this month.
The 29-year-old was included in England’s 15-strong squad to face Ireland at Lord’s from June 1-4 but is now a doubt for the one-off Test and more troublingly for the five-match series against Australia.
Jofra Archer was this week ruled out for the summer because of a recurrence of a stress fracture in his right elbow while fellow quick Olly Stone is currently sidelined with a hamstring problem.
James Anderson’s minor groin strain looks set to keep him out of the Ireland clash in a bid to be fit for the Ashes, with England captain Ben Stokes wanting at least eight fit fast bowlers to call upon, all of whom can be rotated to share the burden with five Tests in the space of six and a half weeks.
