England's chances of staging a fightback against Australia in the Ashes series have taken another significant hit with fast bowler Mark Wood ruled out for the rest of the tour due to a left knee injury. The news comes as a blow to England, who are already trailing 2-0 in the five-match series.
Wood, 35, has suffered a recurrence of the problem he sustained during the Perth Test last month and will now play no part in the final three games of the series. His absence is another significant blow for the team, which was struggling to get through the second test at The Gabba without several of its key players.
The Durham quick had been expected to feature in the third test at Adelaide Oval next week, but his injury means that England will have to make a change to their squad. Matthew Fisher has been called up to the squad in place of Wood and is set to make his second Test appearance for England.
Fisher, 28, was part of the Lions team on an overseas tour with Australia earlier this year and took two wickets in three games, including that of Zak Crawley lbw when the Lions played a pre-Ashes warm-up against Australia A. He has also shown promise in first-class cricket, taking 11 wickets for Surrey against Nottinghamshire.
Wood's injury is another significant blow to his England career, which has been plagued by injuries throughout his career. The seamer had already sat out the second test at Brisbane due to a hamstring problem and is now facing the prospect of not being able to play in any of the remaining games.
England captain Ben Stokes expressed disappointment at Wood's injury, saying that he was "gutted" for him. However, he also expressed confidence that his team could still stage a fightback against Australia. The England team will begin their training preparations for the third test on Sunday and will then fly to Adelaide on Saturday before playing the final test in South Australia.
The task ahead of England is daunting, with the team now 2-0 down in the series and facing an uphill battle to win the five-match series. No Test team since Australia in 1936-37 have come back from two down to win a five-match series, underlining the scale of England's challenge.
Nasser Hussain, Sky Sports' cricket pundit, believes that England need to show their character and resilience if they are going to stage a fightback against Australia. The former England captain said that Wood's injury was a "huge blow" to the team, but also expressed confidence in his team's ability to come back from adversity.
England will begin their training preparations for the third test on Sunday and will then fly to Adelaide on Saturday before playing the final test in South Australia. The task ahead of England is daunting, with the team now 2-0 down in the series and facing an uphill battle to win the five-match series.
Wood, 35, has suffered a recurrence of the problem he sustained during the Perth Test last month and will now play no part in the final three games of the series. His absence is another significant blow for the team, which was struggling to get through the second test at The Gabba without several of its key players.
The Durham quick had been expected to feature in the third test at Adelaide Oval next week, but his injury means that England will have to make a change to their squad. Matthew Fisher has been called up to the squad in place of Wood and is set to make his second Test appearance for England.
Fisher, 28, was part of the Lions team on an overseas tour with Australia earlier this year and took two wickets in three games, including that of Zak Crawley lbw when the Lions played a pre-Ashes warm-up against Australia A. He has also shown promise in first-class cricket, taking 11 wickets for Surrey against Nottinghamshire.
Wood's injury is another significant blow to his England career, which has been plagued by injuries throughout his career. The seamer had already sat out the second test at Brisbane due to a hamstring problem and is now facing the prospect of not being able to play in any of the remaining games.
England captain Ben Stokes expressed disappointment at Wood's injury, saying that he was "gutted" for him. However, he also expressed confidence that his team could still stage a fightback against Australia. The England team will begin their training preparations for the third test on Sunday and will then fly to Adelaide on Saturday before playing the final test in South Australia.
The task ahead of England is daunting, with the team now 2-0 down in the series and facing an uphill battle to win the five-match series. No Test team since Australia in 1936-37 have come back from two down to win a five-match series, underlining the scale of England's challenge.
Nasser Hussain, Sky Sports' cricket pundit, believes that England need to show their character and resilience if they are going to stage a fightback against Australia. The former England captain said that Wood's injury was a "huge blow" to the team, but also expressed confidence in his team's ability to come back from adversity.
England will begin their training preparations for the third test on Sunday and will then fly to Adelaide on Saturday before playing the final test in South Australia. The task ahead of England is daunting, with the team now 2-0 down in the series and facing an uphill battle to win the five-match series.
oh man this is getting ugly for england 
they were already struggling and now mark wood is out for good 
i was saying earlier that they need to make some changes to their squad and it looks like matthew fisher just stepped up as the backup quick 
but it's gonna be tough against australia, especially with no wood to take a few wickets 
nasser hussain said it all - show character, show resilience... easy for him to say, tho 
... 2-0 down with only three tests left? that's a tough mountain to climb 
... still gotta give credit to matthew fisher though, he's shown some promise in first-class cricket 
This is def not the boost england needed 2 curn around in this Ashes series... they're already 2-0 down & it's gonna b hard 4 them 2 come back from that... 
ben stokes said he's gutted for wood but i think thats an understatement, his injury is huge blow to england, still got some fight left in them tho?
they really need some luck or a team effort to turn it around 
what do you think? will england be able to stage a fightback against australia?
The team was already struggling to get through the second test without some key players, and now they have to make another change... it's like throwing a punch in mid-air 
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. Nasser Hussain said it all - they need to show some character and resilience if they want to make a comeback. 
it's like England just can't catch a break! Wood's injury is a huge blow, I mean, he was one of their best bowlers and now he's out for good 
... Mark Wood's injury? Sounds like a classic case of "injury" to me 
. And what's with Fisher getting called up out of nowhere? Is he the next big thing or just a pawn in their game plan? 
. This whole thing reeks of a conspiracy to make Australia look too good and too invincible... or maybe it's just my paranoid mind at work 
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that mark wood got injured he was gonna be a big help for them in the ashles series now they gotta make changes to their squad again 28 year old matthew fisher is coming in instead 
they need to show some character and resilience if they wanna fight back against australia 
its not easy though, no team has come back from being 2-0 down in a five-match series since 1936-37 
and I'm not saying Fisher is the new hero or anything but he's gotta step up big time to save this team from embarrassment