Whelan is fresh injury problem for Worcestershire (From Worcester News)

Whelan is fresh injury problem for Worcestershire

7:00am Tuesday 28th July 2009 in

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WORCESTERSHIRE have been handed another major fitness scare ahead of their LV County Championship Division One derby clash with Warwickshire on Friday.

Chris Whelan is struggling with a side-strain leaving New Road director of cricket Steve Rhodes with only five fully-fit seamers at his disposal.

With Ashley Noffke now gone, the departing Simon Jones out for the season, Kabir Ali rated as “very doubtful” due to his back injury and the potential loss of Whelan, Rhodes is facing the prospect of having to choose four from Matt Mason, Gareth Andrew, Richard Jones, Imran Arif and Mehraj Ahmed.

Only player-bowling coach Mason can be considered a first-team regular out of that quintet, while Mehraj has yet to feature this term and Jones only made his first appearance of the campaign last week.

“Chris is nursing a side-strain,” Rhodes revealed. “Hopefully we should know more in the next 48 hours.”

The director of cricket knows that he will have to be careful with Whelan, who has taken 20 Championship wickets this term.

Australia fast bowler Brett Lee picked up a side-strain against England Lions at New Road at the beginning of the month and he has not featured in any of the Ashes Tests.

Rhodes, who is also without slow left-arm spinner Ian Fisher (broken finger), is awaiting the results of Kabir’s second back scan. The 28-year-old strike bowler underwent a MRI scan last week and the results proved inconclusive.

Kabir has now been sent for a CT scan. The results are expected shortly with the County hoping he will be back on the field in the not too distant future.

The County’s director of cricket is also expected to complete his mid-season review of the players that are out of contract by the beginning of next week.

With nine of his squad coming to the end of their current deals, only England wicketkeeper-batsman Steve Davies has been offered new terms and Simon Jones has been told he is free to leave.

However, Davies is keeping his options open with Surrey and Yorkshire making formal 28-day notices of approach.

Whelan has also been attracting interest from Kent and it is a little surprising that Worcestershire have not yet moved to try and secure his future.

Rhodes said there has been no progress in the pursuit of Yorkshire all-rounder Ajmal Shahzad.