ENGLAND’S ARCHER ON INJURY CONCERNS

ENGLAND bowler Jofra Archer admits he may not be able to cope with any fresh injury problems, revealing ‘I don’t know if I have another stop-start year in me’.

Archer has been plagued by a litany of fitness problems since bursting on to the international scene in 2019 but is on the comeback trail with hopes of featuring in June’s T20 World Cup in the United States of America and his native Caribbean.

The seamer is not yet certain if he will make the tournament, having last played competitively 11 months ago following a repeat stress fracture in his right elbow, but insists avoiding further setbacks is crucial.

The mental and physical toll has been considerable on Archer and he accepts another breakdown could be one too far.

“It’s been a while and honestly, I don’t know if I’ve got another stop-start year in me. That’s the truth, I don’t know if I’ve got another one,” he told the 4Cast’s Athlete’s Voice podcast.

“I haven’t played cricket for a whole 12 months as yet. Last year I played from January to May. I think the year before that, I played maybe one or two games for Sussex, so you know I’ve had a whole year of nothing.”

England are taking a cautious approach with his latest return, taking an early decision to withdraw him from the Indian Premier League and pre-emptively ruling him out of the rigours of Test cricket until next year.

Instead they hope to unleash him in familiar territory in the West Indies.

He shares that ambition but is refusing to count on it.

“Come the first game in June I really do want to be in the team. The last two years have been really stop-start, so I just think that, you know, everyone’s going to just take it a bit easy,” he said.

“If I’m ready then fine, happy days, but if I’m not they’re still supporting me. Worst-case scenario, but even if I don’t make it to the World Cup for whatever reason, there’s still the T20 Blast, there’s still The Hundred.”