Middlesex dealt with a severe blow as Toby Roland-Jones is ruled out

Middlesex have been dealt with a severe blow as pacer Toby Roland-Jones will be unable to play in the ongoing county season. The 30-year-old England pacer has been ruled out of the entire 2018 domestic season owing to the recurrence of a stress fracture. He had earlier suffered from a stress fracture in September last year.

The exclusion came in the wake of the soreness in his back that Roland-Jones suffered during the game at Derbyshire. He was subsequently ruled out of bowling in the second half of the game. Scans conducted revealed it to be a relapse of the stress fracture he’d suffered earlier and Middlesex Cricket announced the need for his extended rehabilitation.

Middlesex Cricket Club devastated at Roland-Jones’s condition

Speaking on Roland-Jones’s exclusion, Angus Fraser, Middlesex Cricket’s Managing Director of Cricket, said, “Everybody at the club is devastated for Toby and our immediate thoughts are with him, and that he makes a full recovery. I know how frustrating it can be to miss a summer of cricket through injury, having been through this myself on two occasions. The ray of light is that you do recover and you do come back stronger and even more determined.”

Fraser went on to talk about how the absence of the pacer would affect Middlesex’s 2018 campaign and said, “Toby’s absence is obviously a setback for Middlesex and he will be missed for more than just his bowling. He is a fantastic presence in the dressing room and has been one of the finest bowlers in the country in the past six or seven years.”

Assuring that the team has a strong reservoir of talented speedsters, he added, “Yet one player’s misfortune is another player’s opportunity and we have a number of young, hungry bowlers on our staff. They now have an opportunity to show their potential and to fill the hole created by Toby’s misfortune. I have every confidence they are up to this challenge.” Unfortunately for Roland-Jones, he’ll have to miss out on the opportunity of representing his national side against sides like Scotland, Australia and India, whose tours are lined up in the same time as his rehabilitation period.

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