England given huge Ashes scare after Mark Wood suffers injury only eight days before the first Test in Perth

Mark Wood has given England a huge Ashes injury scare ahead of the first Test after experiencing left hamstring pain during the warm-up match at Lilac Hill.

Wood, 35, bowling in a match situation for the first time since injuring his knee in the Champions Trophy nine months ago, sent down two four-over spells against England Lions, but left the field after the second midway through the afternoon session.

The Durham fast bowler will undergo a scan on Friday, which the ECB say is a precautionary measure, with the view to him bowling again on Saturday.

In a statement, they also claimed that Wood was only scheduled to bowl eight overs in his first intensive workout since damaging his left knee during defeat to Afghanistan in Lahore in February.

However, with the set-back being just eight days shy of the Ashes starting it now looks highly unlikely that England’s most prolific bowler of the 2021-22 series here will line up at the Optus Stadium.

On the eve of this three-day contest, England captain Ben Stokes dared to dream of pairing Wood with fellow fast bowler Jofra Archer at the start of the series, saying: ‘It would be exciting wouldn’t it?’

But immediately added a note of caution, continuing: ‘It’s nine days til the first Test starts, that’s a lot of time for things to fall into placr or for something to happen.

‘At the moment from a fast bowling point of view, the guys we’ve picked are all in a really good place.’

Wood last played Test cricket against Sri Lanka in August 2024, and had attempted to come back during the home summer, only for plans to face India in the fifth Test or feature in the limited-overs matches versus South Africa in September to be stalled when fluid gathered on his rehabilitated knee.