Commonwealth Bank Southern Stars captain Jodie Fields has been ruled out of the ICC World Twenty20 being held in the West Indies next month, due to a hamstring injury.
Fields will be replaced by young New South Wales wicket-keeper Alyssa Healy, while Alex Blackwell will take over the captaincy and Shelley Nitschke the vice-captaincy.
Fields was progressing well in her bid to make her comeback to international cricket after initially injuring the hamstring in a Women’s National Cricket League match in January. She was close to passing a fitness test on Wednesday that would have seen her make the trip to the Caribbean, but unfortunately suffered a setback on Thursday when she reinjured the same hamstring in an unrelated incident.
Cricket Australia physiotherapist David Beakley said: “Jodie had undergone extensive rehabilitation following her severe hamstring injury in January this year and was on track to return to full fitness in the near future before unfortunately reinjuring the hamstring yesterday.
“She will have surgery again tomorrow and following that we will plan further treatment as we continue to chart her rehabilitation in supporting her comeback.”
Fields said although it was disappointing from a personal point of view, she would be following the team’s progress in the West Indies closely.
“It’s obviously a disappointing setback but I’ll go through the rehabilitation process and look forward to be back playing again this summer. It would have been great to make the trip to the West Indies, but I know the team is in safe hands with Alex in charge and I will be watching on and I wish them all the best,” Fields said.
