Pace bowlers Kyle Jamieson and Matt Henry have been ruled out of New Zealand’s first Test against England on Thursday.
Jamieson has suffered a suspected stress fracture of the back, the same injury he has spent the past eight months recovering from.
Henry, meanwhile, remains in Christchurch awaiting the birth of his first child and has not travelled to Mount Maunganui.
The Black Caps, who are already without leading seamer Trent Boult due to franchise commitments, have called up uncapped pair Jacob Duffy and Scott Kuggeleijn as replacements.
SQUAD NEWS | Kyle Jamieson has been ruled out of the England Test series with a suspected back stress-fracture, while Matt Henry will miss the first Test as he awaits the birth of his first child. #NZvENG
READ MORE ⬇️ https://t.co/OjQkYK8MBt
— BLACKCAPS (@BLACKCAPS) February 13, 2023
Head coach Gary Stead confirmed Jamieson’s latest setback, which came to light after he took part in last week’s warm-up game against England in Hamilton.
“It’s really gutting for Kyle to have this happen after he’d put so much hard work in to getting himself back on the park,” said Stead.
“Since the injury in June we’ve certainly taken a cautious approach to managing his return with regular monitoring by our medical staff which has included scans.
“While Kyle’s not feeling any pain, the evidence is pretty clear he has a stress-fracture and so he’ll return to Christchurch today and have a CT scan on Friday before we decide on the next steps.”
