Trescothick out of Ashes

14 April 2012

Marcus Trescothick has sensationally quit England's Ashes tour and is on his way home from Australia.

The opening batsman is suffering from a recurrence of the stressrelated illness which caused him to flee India earlier this year and then resulted in him being left out of the Champions Trophy trip to the same country just a few weeks ago.

Anderson's stock continues to rise

Trescothick flew out of Sydney this evening with England confirming that his involvement in the Ashes tour is over - just nine days after he landed Down Under and insisted he was ready to face the biggest challenge of his career.

Now there must be serious doubts that the 30-year-old will ever play for his country again.

"Following discussions between Marcus and the England medical staff, it was decided that he should fly home at the earliest opportunity," said coach Duncan Fletcher, who issued only the briefest statement here but is due to face the media tomorrow.

"We are naturally disappointed to lose a player of his quality from our Ashes squad and everyone in the dressing room hopes he is able to make a full recovery and resume his cricketing career."

Trescothick was at the Sydney Cricket Ground today as his England colleagues drew their warm-up match against New South Wales but failed to take the field.

When asked about Trescothick's whereabouts this afternoon, a team spokesman denied there was any problem. But the veteran of 76 Tests left the SCG for Sydney airport shortly before the game finished and his team-mates were told what had happened when they came off the field.

It is understood that Trescothick has been struggling mentally for the past 72 hours and either he or the medical experts who have been treating him decided he had to come home.

The next two questions for England to answer, though, are plain enough: who do they summon from their academy squad to replace Trescothick and why did they gamble on bringing him here in the first place when his state of mind was clearly fragile?

Trescothick has made 76 Test appearances for England, scoring 5,825 runs at an average of 43.79.

Trescothick's England future is in serious doubt, according to David Lloyd and Bob Willis.

It is a massive blow to England's bid to retain the urn they won for the first time in 18 years last summer and former national team coach Lloyd claims there are fresh doubts over the international career of the 30-year-old.

'Not for the faint-hearted'

Asked where this latest episode leaves Trescothick's England career, Lloyd said on Sky Sports News: "In great doubt. It is two or three times this has happened."

Former England captain Willis added: "It's a massive blow to him and his career. There's severe doubt whether he can get back to playing international cricket again."

Lloyd believes Trescothick would not have left the tour unless the illness was extremely serious.

"It's very easy to just say 'what's wrong with Trescothick, why is he not there?"' Lloyd said.

"I know Marcus Trescothick pretty well and he must have a dreadful illness. The bottom line is he just cannot cope with it.

"I really feel for him and I hope that everyone else does but it is clear he's got a serious illness."

But Willis reckons Trescothick should not have gone on tour in the first place.

"They should have heard the alarm bells when he said he didn't want to go to India," he said. "How a guy was going to recover in a space of a few weeks - they should have really flagged up the problem then.

"It's the toughest challenge going for an England cricketer and he was obviously going to be given a tough time both on and off the field by the Aussies because of the mental problems he has had.

"It's not for the faint-hearted this tour."

Both agreed the news will rock the England squad, who have little over a week to recover ahead of the first Test in Brisbane on November 23.

"From England's viewpoint, this will be unbelievable news for the rest of the team," Lloyd said.

"I should think they will be very reflective and very tired because they would have planned that Trescothick would be an integral part of this team and the Ashes campaign.

"That dressing room will be absolutely reeling at this news."

Willis added: "For Andrew Flintoff and the boys, the worst possible start. Echoes of four years ago when players were taken to Australia who weren't 100 per cent fit and fell apart before the series began."

And both men backed Alastair Cook to replace Trescothick at the top of the order and believe Robert Key will be drafted in as cover.

"It's damage limitation just at the minute and Cook will move up the order," Lloyd said. "Cook will open the batting but they will need a replacement player.

"There is a massive Flintoff support for Robert Key so that would be a factor.

"The other one is Ed Joyce."

Willis added: "For Brisbane, he has to go with Cook at number two. If they want a replacement opener, I think Robert Key is nailed on for that job."

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