Hurricane Hayley’s major injury blow

THE Hobart Hurricanes are bracing for the likely loss of West Indian all-rounder Hayley Matthews for the rest of the WBBL season after she wrecked her knee in Burnie on Sunday.

The 20-year-old Barbados-born star fell awkwardly during her whirlwind innings of 42 off 30 deliveries in the 10th over in the Hurricanes’ win over Melbourne Stars at West Park.

Matthews missed training yesterday and coach Salliann Briggs is wondering if she will have her allrounder again this summer.

“It doesn’t look good,” Briggs said. “We still don’t know for definite. If we can get the chance to get her in the back end, we’ll obviously want to keep her as long as possible.

“We are still investigating where she is at and hopefully we will get some information this week.”

The replacement for Matthews is already at the Hurricanes — 25year-old Lancashire all-rounder Alex Hartley — who played in the opening-round loss to Perth, coincidentally as a replacement for Matthews.

Hartley could get her call-up for Hobart’s double-header against the Sydney Sixers at Blundstone Arena on Saturday and Sunday.

Briggs said there would be no search for a Matthews replacement.

“Our hands are tied with that because we’ve already used Alex Hartley to replace Hayley anyway,” Briggs said.

“So if Hayley was out, we’d have to go to Alex anyway.”

The Hurricanes are watching the clock as they wait to discover the extent of Matthews’ knee injury.

“Hopefully we’ll find out in the next couple of days,” Briggs said.

“What is really useful is that Alex Hartley is already here.

“If it happens [Matthews’ longterm loss] we can bring Alex in whenever we need.

“We just need the medical people to make sure they’ve reviewed the scan properly and give us the right information, and then we can make that decision.”

The potential loss of Matthews is a double blow.

“She batted well on Sunday and bowled brilliantly on Saturday as well, taking 2-23,” Briggs said.

“It causes a few issues just because she offers both disciplines — she’s a good all-rounder.

“If it means we don’t have her it probably means we need to find two people to replace one person.”