Jofra Archer has endured a torrid time with injuries
(Picture: Getty Images)Jofra Archer has suffered another brutal injury blow as he was ruled out for the season with a stress fracture of the lower back.
Archer has not played for England in any format since March 2021 due to a stress fracture of the right elbow.
But, helped by two surgeries, he was making good progress in his return from that, joining England to train in Barbados last month, and was hoping to play for Sussex in the Vitality Blast as soon as next week. But as he built up his return, he suffered the back injury, which has since been confirmed as a stress fracture.
He has been ruled out for the season and seems a major doubt for the T20 World Cup in Australia in October, for which he would have been a key player for England. He missed the last edition of that tournament, in the UAE last autumn, with England struggling to replace his threat in the powerplay, and especially at the death.
It had not been expected that Archer would play Test cricket for England this summer as they slowly eased him back into action in the white-ball formats. Now, his wait between international fixtures will extend to at least 18 months.
A curt ECB statement read: “After being diagnosed with a stress fracture to the lower back, England and Sussex seamer Jofra Archer has been ruled out for the rest of the season. No timeframe has been set for his return. A management plan will be determined following further specialist opinion over the coming days.”
Archer has become the third England fast bowler this week to suffer a stress fracture of the back, following Saqib Mahmood and Matt Fisher, who made their Test debuts in the West Indies in March.
Olly Stone, another of England’s star quicks, suffered a stress fracture last year and is still not ready to return to action with Warwickshire, while both Curran brothers, Tom and Sam Curran, have had the same injury in the last six months. Tom is yet to play, but Sam has been working up his bowling loads while playing as a specialist batter for Surrey.
The fast bowling injury list also includes Chris Woakes, who is struggling with knee issues after the tour of the Caribbean, and Mark Wood, who had an elbow operation last month but is nearing a return.
Archer’s injury is perhaps the most painful of all for both the player and the national team.
He wrote in his Daily Mail column earlier this month that he wondered, on the long return back from his elbow injury, whether he would ever play cricket again, and had been in a “dark place”. But he said he could not “believe how good I feel” as he neared his return. He said he was so confident that he had taken some time out of his rehab to visit his family in Barbados.
Now, he has suffered a brutal setback.
Archer was born in Barbados but had a British passport through his English father and, after joining Sussex, qualified on residency in 2019. He made an instant impact in all formats, taking more wickets at the 2019 World Cup than any English man ever, and holding his nerve in a Super Over to secure the title over New Zealand.
He followed that with a sensational first summer in Test cricket, picking up six-wicket hauls in England’s two Ashes wins at Headingley and the Kia Oval, showing off a range of skills, including swing, seam and extreme pace. He floored Steve Smith in an extraordinary spell at Lord’s which ruled the world’s best batter out of the next match.
Since, things have not been plain-sailing. He underwent a huge workload on flat pitches in New Zealand in 2019, then first suffered an elbow injury on the tour of South Africa that followed. Further elbow issues reemerged in India in 2021, since when he has not played for England. He played for Sussex in both red- and white-ball cricket last summer but the injury continued to trouble him.
