England fast bowler Ollie Robinson has a sore left ankle and is due to have a scan tomorrow (Monday 22 May) to determine his fitness.
Worried speculation surrounded Robinson at Hove yesterday after the England fast bowler failed to take the field after lunch on the third day of the LV= Insurance County Championship game between Sussex and Glamorgan.
Sussex coach Paul Farbrace said last night: “Ollie has a sore left ankle and he will be scanned on Monday to see how bad he is.
“We knew it was sore yesterday. We got one spell out of him this morning and he tried his hardest. It was a long spell and he got stuck in.
“He knew it would be one spell and one spell only. And then he was off for the day. We’ll find out what the issue is on Monday.
“It was precautionary. There was no point in making it worse. It’s the walking more than the running in. He was all right running in down the slope. He did ok.
“It’s a joint decision between the Sussex medical team and the England medical team. Much as we want him out there bowling and taking wickets, it’s not fair on him to make the injury worse. So there was good conversation last night and again this morning.”
Robinson didn’t open the attack in the morning but, when he came on to bowl after half an hour’s play, he put in an eight-over spell without looking quite as dangerous as he had the day before, when he bowled seven overs.
He failed to take a wicket yesterday, though he did have Glamorgan captain Kiran Carlson dropped at third slip on just three by James Coles
With the Ashes series just a month away, the fitness of England’s cadre of fast bowlers – of which Robinson is arguably the steadiest – is being carefully monitored.
Robinson is in fine form, taking career best match figures of 14 for117 against Worcestershire earlier this month, after which he was rested for the game against Leicestershire.
He maintained that form here on Thursday, when he was Sussex’s best bowler with figures of 4-29 as Glamorgan were dismissed for 123 in their first innings.
But when Sussex took the new ball yesterday afternoon, desperate for a breakthrough with Glamorgan 309 for three, Robinson was still off the field.
Sussex had coach Paul Farbrace said: “It’s never ideal when you lose your best bowler. In many ways it sums up our season.
“We’ve had four games on the bounce now when we’ve played really good cricket, when we’ve been good enough to bowl a team out but not good enough to bowl them out twice.
“It doesn’t help when you lose an international bowler who is bowling well and bowling with good rhythm.
“We dropped Carlson on three which was a big miss. But the two of them played very well. With our resources we have to take every chance that comes our way.
“We’re making good progress but we’re having similar days in every championship game. We get runs, we bowl the opposition out but bowling them out again is hard for us.
“It’s a good pitch. It’s slowed up a little bit. But there is a bit of turn there and you expect it to turn more on day four. We just haven’t got enough balls in the right place consistently enough.”
Glamorgan’s Australian better Marnus Labuschagne said: “It’s been a very enjoyable season so far. We’ve played some very good cricket.
“It’s slightly underwhelming not being able to put us in a situation where we can win the game on day four. But Kiran and the boys can still put us in that position.
“It’s important to take it one ball at a time. And we said that in a meeting before the game. And not to get too overwhelmed by what we needed.
“We decided to take it one ball at a time, one spell at a time, and keep building that partnership and that’s what Kiran and I did.
“We kept each other honest and kept each other back on track. We invested in the partnership and didn’t give too many opportunities.”
