England bowler Steven Finn's Ashes tour is over after only nine days because of torn cartilage in his left knee.
Finn, a late addition to England's squad as a replacement for the absent Ben Stokes, was first ruled out of two warm-up matches after hitting his knee with his bat in net practice last Thursday.
But the seamer has since undergone an injection to try to treat the injury – and with no improvement, England's medics have decided he should fly home for a consultation with a knee surgeon and a possible operation.
Moeen Ali, also out of the first two tour fixtures, continued his anticipated recovery from a minor side injury as he trained alone on the eve of the day-night match against a Cricket Australia XI in Adelaide and remains on course to be fit in time for the opening Test in Brisbane.
As for Finn, though, a brief England and Wales Cricket Board statement read: "(He) will miss the remainder of (the) tour of Australia after scans revealed that he has a torn left knee cartilage.
"The Middlesex seamer sustained the injury during practice last week in Perth and will now return to the UK in the next 48 hours where he will meet a knee specialist to ascertain whether he will have an operation.
"England will announce his replacement for the rest of the tour in due course."
It is a cruel blow for Finn, on his third Ashes tour but having been dropped midway through England's famous 2010/11 series victory and then badly out of form and never picked four years ago before then being described as "unselectable" by limited-overs coach Ashley Giles.
England are therefore left to come up with a second replacement in the space of a month, with key all-rounder Stokes still at home waiting to hear whether he will be charged by Avon & Somerset Police over a late-night fracas in Bristol in September.
Several other names could therefore come into contention to fly out in place of Finn – with the uncapped pair Tom Curran and Tom Helm and veteran Liam Plunkett among possibles, while Mark Wood continues his recovery from a heel injury.
Coach Trevor Bayliss has indicated another decision is in the immediate offing too, after he and Joe Root got their heads together to work out who should replace Stokes as official tour vice-captain.
"Rooty and I have had a bit of a chat about it over the last few days, and you'll probably see an announcement in the next day or two," he said.
Both the coach and senior players James Anderson and Stuart Broad, among the obvious vice-captaincy contenders, have made clear they do not see it as a critical appointment.
"Personally, I wasn't necessarily concerned about naming one," added Bayliss.
"There's probably three or four guys in the team that could do it … older guys who play that role anyway as leaders of the team."
One such, Broad, said: "I don't see the vice-captaincy as a particularly important role in cricket really.
"Within the group, you have an amount of senior players that always have an input.
"In cricket, the vice-captain literally takes over if the captain runs off the field and needs the toilet.
"In the group, it's not even been talked about."
"I don't think it's something that's really pressing … it's not something that the hierarchy feel needs deciding quickly."
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