Matthew Hoggard, the England fast bowler, was taken to hospital today after hurting his side in a warm-up before Yorkshire’s Liverpool Victoria County Championship match against Nottinghamshire this morning.
Both he and Anthony McGrath, the former England batsman, sustained what were thought only to be minor injuries ahead of the Division One match.
Scott McAllister, the Yorkshire physiotherapist, revealed Hoggard had been taken to hospital for a precautionary scan.
“This [the scan] shows there is no muscular tear but Matthew will have an MRI scan tomorrow at 1pm to see if he has a small abdominal strain on his right side,” said McAllister.
“We did not play Matthew today because we did not want to go a bowler down and the decision was made for him to have a scan because there was a slight doubt about his fitness.”
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Meanwhile, Monty Panesar has played down talk of a rivalry with Ashley Giles by describing his fellow England spinner and Ashes tourist as a “world-class cricketer”.
Both were named in the 16-man squad that will travel to Australia to defend the urn this winter, with the selectors sparking debate over which man is England’s most accomplished slow bowler.
Panesar has shone during Giles’s injury absence this summer, taking 27 Test wickets against Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
With England likely to utilise only one spinner for the majority of the Ashes Tests, and 33-year-old Giles still recovering from a serious hip problem, Panesar appears to be in pole position.
But Panesar, 24, has talked down his own credentials and paid tribute to his senior partner.
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“I’m just a young kid trying to bowl spin,” he told The Wisden Cricketer.
“He’s a world-class cricketer and I just hope I can maybe be like him one day. When you look up to someone in that way, I don’t know how I could compare myself as a competitor.”