England fast bowler Mark Wood would be willing to spend nine weeks away from his family to play international cricket this summer.

The landscape of the cricketing calendar in the UK has shifted dramatically due to the coronavirus pandemic; no professional cricket is to be played before July 1 at the earliest.

The ECB has put international cricket at the forefront of its priorities in staging any action this summer and, according to the Guardian, England’s Test players were briefed earlier this week on a host of possible measures that could see them fit in preparations and six matches in the space of nine weeks from late June through to the end of August.

The report states that current plans would see all six of England’s Tests with West Indies and Pakistan played at the Ageas Bowl and Old Trafford. Both venues have on-site hotels.

Asked whether he’d be willing to spend nine weeks away from his family to play for England, Wood replied: “I’d be willing to do it. Being away on tour for long periods of time, you sort of get used to it.

“It’ll be very hard, but as long as the environment’s safe and my family are safe and everyone else there is safe, then I’d be willing to do it.

“I think everybody in the squad, as long as the conditions are right, would be willing to come back and play some cricket. We’re desperate to get going. I know it would be a long stint and it would be hard, but it would be good to get back out there at the same time.”

With six matches fit into a short space of time, there are likely to be fitness concerns for fast bowlers such as Wood, whose career has involved numerous injury setbacks. In February he was ruled out of the tour of Sri Lanka – prior to its cancellation – due to a side strain. However, with a squad of up to 30 players reportedly on the cards, Wood added that squad rotation would ease such concerns.

“I think it will be challenging,” Wood said. “I imagine what they’ll do is have a pool of players – we’ve talked about different fast bowlers, different swing bowlers, different batters. We’ll have a  pool of players that we’ll dip into if the Test matches come thick and fast. I think that was the plan anyway certainly looking at my circumstances. I wouldn’t have played every game, I’d be in and out of the side to manage my workload and manage my body.

“I think that will probably be the same for all the fast bowlers, as long as we’ve got a good pool which I think we have at the moment. Coming in and out of the side shouldn’t be a problem. We’ve never been in these circumstances before where we don’t know what’s going to happen on the down days – I guess you can’t just go home so maybe you’ll have to train in small groups. It will be interesting to see how it does work.”