Willey to miss Trent Bridge trip as Northants face anxious wait

Willey will have a scan on what Ripley described as a ‘foot and ankle’ injury sustained in a collision with Worcestershire Rapids bowler Jack Shantry on Friday night.

Willey was batting at the time and went on to make an impressive 31 from 12 balls, but he did not bowl or field and was immediately sent back to Northampton.

He will have a scan on Monday and Ripley is hoping the damage to the England star is not too severe, with a T20 game at Derbyshire Falcons looming a week on Sunday.

“We missed David when he was with England recently, he’s a big player for us all round,” said the Steelbacks head coach. “We just hope his injury isn’t too serious.

“We feel for him, we’ve missed him, but we’ve enjoyed watching him playing so brilliantly for England and we hope his injury isn’t too bad.

“He went over on his foot and ankle and we’ve got our fingers crossed.

“He’s going to have an X-ray and scan on Monday and he definitely won’t play against Nottinghamshire.

“He wasn’t going to play in our Championship game at Old Trafford on Monday, we were going to rest him there because he’d been away with England for a couple of weeks.

“Hopefully it can settle down for our next T20 game next weekend.”