Luke Fletcher, who missed Nottinghamshire’s 2020 season opener against Derbyshire through injury, will remain unavailable for the forthcoming matches against Yorkshire against Lancashire.

The 30-year-old fast bowler, who was the leading light with the ball in his county’s 2019 red-ball campaign with 35 wickets at 26.45, left the field with an abdominal injury during the pre-season fixture against Leicestershire. 

"Having waited such a long time to get back to playing cricket, picking up an injury is very frustrating," said the homegrown paceman.

"It's always disappointing to miss a game of cricket that you feel you could have made an impact on.

"My focus now is to work hard alongside Pipey (James Pipe, Head Physio), Trants (Phil Tranter, Physio) and Liam (Price, Strength and Conditioning Coach) to get back on the field as soon as I can."

Fletcher, who made his Nottinghamshire debut back in 2008, has 343 career First-Class wickets to his name at an average of  28.14. He was the club’s player of the year in 2019.

“It was such a long wait to get back playing cricket. I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to be struck down by injury now.”

Luke Fletcher

“I feel for Fletch because his injury comes at the worst possible time having revved himself up to finally start the new season,” said Nottinghamshire Head Coach Peter Moores.

“It’s also a tough one to take for us as a team. While I always say injuries create opportunities for other people, we can be honest with our members & supporters and admit that - when it comes to experience and sheer weight of numbers in our frontline fast bowling options - we’re some way short of where we’d like to be at the moment

“As always with Luke, he's throwing himself fully into his recovery work, and we're trying to get him back as soon as we can.”

The severity of a foot injury that saw Joey Evison leave the field during the final day against Derbyshire is being assessed by medical professionals.

Nottinghamshire are next in action against Yorkshire at Trent Bridge starting on Saturday.

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