Virat Kohli’s stint with Surrey in the County Championship could be cut short with an injury cloud hanging over him, reports in the Indian media said on Thursday, May 24.

Kohli was initially expected to spend all of June with the county side, but a report in ESPNcricinfo quoted a BCCI official advising Kohli to handle his workload ahead of the Test series in England in August.

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“The workload had started to show towards the end of the IPL,” the BCCI official, who was unnamed, was quoted as saying. “The BCCI medical team has advised him to be careful with how much he plays in the lead-up to the Test series. The Test series is our topmost priority.”

Mumbai Mirror reported that Kohli was diagnosed with a “herniated disc” after meeting an orthopaedic surgeon in Mumbai. The BCCI official denied there was any injury as serious as that, but said there was a need for Kohli to better handle his workload.

[caption id=”attachment_72199″ align=”alignnone” width=”800″] “The workload had started to show towards the end of the IPL”[/caption]

When Kohli signed with Surrey – in doing so he skipped the Afghanistan Test in Bangalore starting on June 14 – the initial understanding was that the India captain would be with the county for all of June, including five one-day matches for the side.

However, India called him up for the T20Is against Ireland, to be played on June 27 and 29, and the BCCI official said there was no question of Kohli playing for Surrey as long as initially intended.

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“There is no way now he is going to play 17 days of cricket in one month, you can forget about that,” the BCCI official said. “As of now, he is likely to play the first two first-class matches, then recuperate and then join the team in Ireland.”

According to the report, Surrey are yet to be intimated about the development.