Sam Curran's Test comeback will be delayed after he was ruled out of the rest of the English summer with a groin injury.
The England allrounder was mooted as an ideal replacement for Ben Stokes after the former Test captain's retirement earlier this summer. However, a groin issue picked up during The Hundred for MI London means Curran will undergo an operation on Friday and will not take the field again this season.
It is a blow for Curran, who made his Test debut as a 19-year old in 2018, going on to make 24 Test caps, the last of which came in 2021. His focus on white-ball cricket had largely kept him out of Test conversation, and he has fought his way back into Harry Brook's limited overs set-up.
But following Stokes' departure, England's management have been keen to reintroduce Curran to the red ball squad. Selector Marcus North revealed Curran was seriously considered for the first Test against Pakistan. However it was felt an intense workload this summer - including leading MI London in The Hundred - would make it "unfair" on the left-armer seamer to feature in the first two Tests, back-to-back at Headingley and Lord's. As such, he was pencilled in for the squad for the series-decider at Edgbaston, starting on September 9.
Part of Curran's tapering into that match included a stint back with Surrey in the County Championship, starting on Thursday at home to defending Division One champions Nottinghamshire. Not only is he out of contention for that and their run-in, but Will Jacks will also not feature after undergoing a successful operation to remove his appendix.
Jacks was an option for the Pakistan series, missing out to Dan Lawrence who occupies the role of spinning allrounder batting at six alongside four quicks as England look to balance their side without Stokes.
An ECB statement stated England "will monitor his recovery and assess availability ahead of the Sri Lanka (white ball) series" in September, suggesting Jacks will not be fit enough to be considered for this Pakistan series. The schedule against Sri Lanka starts on September 15 with three T20Is following by three ODIs.