Heather Knight, the England captain, has been ruled out of the remainder of the Commonwealth Games and The Hundred with a hip injury.
Knight has not played either of England’s two fixtures at the Commonwealth Games so far after suffering the injury during the first T20I of the bilateral series against
South Africa at Chelmsford on July 21.
The England camp said on Wednesday that the injury had “failed to settle down as expected and Knight will continue to receive treatment”.
Nat Sciver will remain England’s captain at the Commonwealth Games, where no replacement player can be called up, leaving the host nation with a 14-strong squad for the remainder of the competition. Knight will remain in Birmingham with the squad.
Knight had injections in her hip joint while sitting out the last two matches of the South Africa series in an effort to overcome the injury but Sciver revealed on Tuesday that Knight had undergone further scans after only noticing minor improvement.
“She’s not in a good place,” Sciver said. “She’s better than she has been in the last few days, still in a bit of pain with her hip.
“It’s probably going to be a bit quick to play
against New Zealand. She went and saw our team doctor and had another scan.”
England have won both their group games so far comfortably in Knight’s absence, with 17-year-old
Alice Capsey performing well at No. 3, Sciver at No. 4 and
Amy Jones holding down the No. 5 spot.
England are already assured of a place in the semi-finals at Edgbaston, with their final group fixture against New Zealand on Thursday set to determine who finishes top of Group B.
Australia, who are guaranteed to top Group A after
beating Pakistan by 44 runs in their final group match on Wednesday, will play the second-placed team in Group B; and the Group B leaders will play the winner of Wednesday night’s match between
India and Barbados in Saturday’s semi-finals.
Knight was due to play a second season as London Spirit captain in this year’s edition of the Women’s Hundred. London Spirit Women begin their campaign
against Southern Brave at Southampton on August 12.
