(UTV | COLOMBO) – Fast bowler Jofra Archer is ready to “sit out the summer” in order to be fit for the Twenty20 World Cup and Ashes later this year.
The 26-year-old had surgery on his troublesome right elbow on Friday and has started rehabilitation with the England and Sussex medical teams.
“One thing I am determined about post-elbow operation is not to rush my comeback because my primary focus is to be playing for England in the T20 World Cup and Ashes later this year,” he wrote in his column for the Daily Mail.
“Those are my targets. If I come back before then and manage to play in the home Test series against India then fine, so be it. If I don’t, I am quite prepared to sit out the summer.
“The way I am looking at things is that I would rather miss a few weeks of a year so that I have a few more years in my career.
“I’m not going to do myself any good by coming back before I’m fully fit, so I will take my time and do what is best for me and my life.”
Archer had an injection for the long-standing elbow problem in March and has played only two matches since then.
The Barbados-born bowler managed only five overs in the second innings of Sussex’s draw with Kent earlier this month.
A further update and guidance on when he will return to bowling is expected in about four weeks.
“The bandages are off and I have spoken to the consultant since, but everything is still very fresh and I remain sore after what was a career-defining moment last Friday,” Archer added.
“Surgery was always the last option and we wanted to exercise every possible strategy before we went down that route.
“It was the last thing on the list. It is not always a fix and in four weeks we will find out how things have gone.”
England will host a two-Test series against New Zealand in June, followed by limited-overs series against Sri Lanka and Pakistan and then five Tests against India starting in August.
The T20 World Cup is scheduled to take place in October and November in India, before England travel to Australia in December for the Ashes.
