Reece Topley could miss the rest of England’s World Cup campaign with a suspected broken finger after sustaining the injury in their defeat to South Africa today (October 21).

Topley suffered a blow to his left index finger in the early stages of the match in Mumbai, weathering a strike to his digit off a straight drive from Rassie van der Dussen. After receiving treatment on the field he attempted to continue bowling, but left the field immediately after his next ball in clear discomfort.

He returned to the field for the final 20 overs of South Africa’s innings and resumed bowling, taking two wickets in his first two overs back in the attack. However, he was taken apart by Marco Jansen in the final over of his innings, hit for three sixes and a four in the same over to leave him with figures of 3-88 from 8.5 overs.

After the match, England head coach Matthew Mott revealed that Topley’s injury was a suspected broken finger. “It’s very much looking like it’s a crack,” Mott said. “Certainly, that’s the early diagnosis but we’ll find out properly when we get the X-rays with Reece.”

England only named one travelling reserve of a possible three in addition to their 15-player squad. Jofra Archer is in India and training with the group but will not be considered to replace Topley if the scans rule him out of the rest of the tournament.

“Jof is actually not going to be considered for selection,” said Mott. “He’s come out, he’s reported to the medical staff but he’s not going to be able to play a part in the end of this campaign.”

If Topley’s scans do indeed reveal a break to his finger, England will have to fly in a replacement bowler. Their next match is against Sri Lanka on Thursday, October 26.

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