Cricket: England's Marcus Trescothick is to return home from the Ashes Tour and will not play in the Test series.
The batsman, who left Sydney today, has suffered a recurrence of the stress-related illness which led to him leaving England's tour of India earlier this year.
The England selectors will hold urgent discussions over the next 24 hours about a replacement for Trescothick and an announcement will be made in due course.
The most obvious replacements would be Robert Key, Owais Shah or Irish-born Ed Joyce, who have all been picked for the Academy squad in Perth.
England coach Duncan Fletcher said: "Following discussions between Marcus and the England medical staff, it was decided that Marcus should fly home at the earliest opportunity.
"We are naturally disappointed to lose a player of his quality from our Ashes squad and everyone in the dressing room hopes that he is able to make a full recovery and resume his cricketing career."
The news leaves a vacancy at the top of England's order, with Alastair Cook the man likely to be promoted to partner Andrew Strauss although Joyce is also in contention.
Former England all-rounder Ian Botham suspected Trescothick might not be ready to face Australia.
Botham said: "He came home from the last tour and he was unavailable for the ICC Trophy, and now he's on his way home again so I would think that they've done everything they can. It's obviously not worked and now they go back to the drawing board.
"I have a feeling that everyone realised this was a possibility and the situation has now arisen. Cook could be the obvious choice.''
Trescothick has made 76 Test appearances for England, scoring 5,825 runs at an average of 43.79.