England's Olly Stone Ruled Out Of Ashes 2019 With Back Injury

Stone originally suffered from a partial stress fracture to his left lower back on the West Indies tour early this year and was ruled out for a significant period of time

England and Warwickshire seamer Olly Stone has been ruled out for rest of 2019 Ashes campaign with a stress fracture of the back. Warwickshire County Cricket Club had confirmed that pacer Olly sustained a left lower back injury that forced him to stay out of action for some time. The 25-year-old had received the injury while training at Edgbaston. Jofra Archer, a welcome boost for England following injuries to James Anderson and Olly Stone, marked his Test debut with a wicket as Australia suffered a top-order collapse before rain stopped the play at Lord's on Friday. Stone originally suffered from a partial stress fracture to his left lower back on the West Indies tour early this year and was ruled out for a significant period of time. Stone returned to competitive action in early July and was handed his Test debut in the one-off Test against Ireland, where he took three wickets while conceding 29 runs in the first innings at Lord's. The fast bowler was then named in the Ashes squad but was released after not making the playing XI for the first Test at Edgbaston which England lost by 251 runs. However, last week, the 25-year-old aggravated the injury in training and was ruled out of the ongoing Lord's Test. "We're obviously gutted to lose him," BBC Sport quoted Paul Farbrace, sports director of Warwickshire, as saying. "Olly had such a fantastic season in 2018 and looked set to play an important role for England as well as ourselves this summer after making his Test debut just two weeks ago. "With Olly's season having ended prematurely, he will now work our medical and strength and conditioning teams to get stronger and fitter than ever," he added.