England ODI opener Jason Roy retired hurt with a back spasm while playing for Surrey against Essex in the Royal London One-Day Cup prompting brief concerns over his World Cup participation.
RETIRED HURT: Will Jacks replaces Jason Roy. The England opener can still return later in the innings.
Surrey are 31/0 in the fifth over. #SURvESS pic.twitter.com/BW55HNtN13
— Surrey Cricket (@surreycricket) April 23, 2019
This isn’t the first time this season that Roy has been hindered by injury. Earlier this season, he had been hoping to stake his claim for a place in the England Test side in the early season County Championship match against Essex, but was ruled out with a hamstring injury.
He found he was able to return to the side for the List A matches, starting with Surrey’s embarrassing loss to Gloucestershire where they were bowled out for 88. In this third match of the side’s One-Day Cup campaign, he had scored a fluent 16 off 12 balls including three fours, before he pulled up and the physio was called.
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Roy attempted to continue but shortly afterwards decided he was in too much physical distress and left the field of play. While it was initially thought that he had gone down with a recurrence of his hamstring injury, it was later confirmed that it was a back spasm that was causing the discomfort. He is expected to return to the crease later in the Surrey innings.
England fans will be hoping his body holds up ahead of the World Cup considering his importance to the national side. Since the start of 2018 he has scored 1019 runs at an average of 42.46, including four centuries.
Roy returned to the crease with Surrey at 241-7, helping Surrey reach a total of 278-8 off their 50 overs. He finished the innings on 35 not out, scoring a four and a six consecutively in the final over.
Although he was able to return to bat out the innings, he did not return to field.
