Jason Roy and Eoin Morgan, both the English in-form batsman, went down in the first innings of the host’s fourth match of the World Cup 2019 against West Indies in Southampton on Friday. Thankfully, the England team held it together in comprehensive fashion, restricting the Windies to 212 and then knocking the runs off in leisurely fashion off 33.1 overs for the loss of two wickets.
Roy was the first to fall. A chase of a ball skewed over the covers saw him pull up and turn towards the balcony during the eighth over of the match. He was feeling his left hamstring as he walked off and, soon, the ECB confirmed he needed further assessment after “feeling tightness”.
An update on Jason Roy's injury from the England camp. Roy is experiencing "some tightness in his left hamstring" and is "currently being assessed."
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— ICC Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) June 14, 2019
During the 40th over, Morgan doubled over and had to be taken out off the field. Such was his discomfort, he stopped on his way to the changing room after finding the stairs up to the dressing room particularly difficult to conquer. Both players will undergo scans on Saturday to survey the damage.
After the eight-wicket win over West Indies at the Rose Bowl, England skipper Morgan gave an important update on Roy and his injury.
In the post-match presentation, Morgan said: “It is my back, it’s a little bit sore, and Roy tweaked his hammy as well.”
“I have had a lot of back spasms as well in the past. It’s a matter of waiting 48 hours to let it settle down, sometimes it settles a lot quicker than expected and sometimes it lingers around, so we’ll just have to see how it goes.”
At the subsequent post-match press conference, Morgan chose to stand to address the media due to his discomfort, but insisted the fitness of both him and Roy was not “panic stations”.
“We’ll do a risk assessment, see how risky it is going into that game, bearing in mind we have two games in quite a short space (of time).”
If both Morgan and Roy are ruled out for the remaining tournament, Joe Denly and Dawid Malan could be the potential replacements for England.
