England team director Andy Flower has confirmed that Eoin Morgan has been ruled out of the Cricket World Cup due to a broken finger picked up on the tour to Australia.
The 24-year-old Dubliner flew back to England a day early after being diagnosed with a fracture to the middle finger in his left hand.
But after seeing a specialist yesterday the left-handed batsman has been now ruled out of the competition, which gets underway on February 19th.
Morgan was due to play against his former Ireland team-mates in a Group B clash in Bangalore on March 2nd but his place now goes to Essex batsman Ravi Bopara.
Flower said: “Eoin Morgan won’t be going to the World Cup. He needs to be operated on. That’s a serious loss. But Ravi Bopara, who is an exciting young cricketer in his own right, will be joining us.”
Morgan missed the final one-day international of the recently completed one-day series against Australia after fracturing the finger, a problem he first became aware of in the fourth one-day international in Adelaide.
Morgan did not feel the injury was anything to worry about when he first felt it.
“He injured it in that Adelaide game and didn’t think it was serious, but it got worse the more he played and practised,” Flower added. “The pain grew worse and therefore the medical team got onto it.”
Morgan was one of a number of England’s World Cup squad who picked up injuries on the Ashes tour.
Graeme Swann, Tim Bresnan, Ajmal Shahzad, Paul Collingwood, Stuart Broad and Chris Tremlett all picked up knocks of varying seriousness in Australia.
Flower said there was “good news” regarding the majority of the injured players.
But the fact that Morgan, perhaps the key cog in England’s limited-overs side, is missing, will be a big blow to England’s World Cup hopes.
Flower insisted his replacement Bopara, who has been with the England Lions in the West Indies, will bring plenty to the squad.
“No-one is irreplaceable,” Flower said. “Ravi Bopara is a very talented and exciting player.
“He will also bring a bit of medium-pace bowling to help out the captain. We’re confident the 15 players we’ve got out there will gel.”
England skipper Andrew Strauss, a team-mate of Morgan’s at Middlesex, added: “It is the nature of the beast that you are going to get injuries. Fortunately he is a young guy with many more opportunities ahead of him.”