Clarke receives replacement call-up while in hospital

It should come as no surprise when the England selectors contacted one of their three latest replacements for the International Cricket Council Trophy squad, that the player in question, Rikki Clarke, should be in hospital.

It was typical of the summer that the England management has suffered with injury after injury. In this instance, having played an inside edge on to his left knee while scoring an unbeaten, match-winning 98 in a Norwich Union League match at Derby on Monday, Clarke, Surrey's brilliant 20-year-old prospect, was in the Stamford Hospital in Hammersmith, west London, receiving treatment.

He was contacted on his mobile phone by the chairman of selectors, David Graveney, on Thursday. "He said to me, 'You are in the squad for the ICC Trophy,' and I said, 'Thanks very much, cheers', " explained Clarke, who will fly out to Sri Lanka with the rest of the squad for the tournament, which runs from 12 to 29 September in Colombo.

Clarke is in for Durham's Paul Collingwood and is joined by two more substitutes, Dominic Cork and Owais Shah, the former coming in for Craig White, the latter for Michael Vaughan. These latest additions bring to five the number of replacements England have been forced to call up for the tournament so far.

Collingwood has a prolapsed disc in his neck, White is suffering from a side strain and Vaughan is to undergo arthroscopy to clean up his right knee, which will keep him out for four weeks. Earlier, replacements had to be found for Darren Gough (knee) and Andrew Flintoff (double hernia).

The England and Wales Cricket Board anticipates that the three latest injured players will be available for the rest of the winter tour programme, while Clarke will be able to join up with Rod Marsh and the Academy students in Adelaide once his one-day international duties are over.

It has been quite a week for the Guildford player Clarke, having been put forward for a place in the Academy, he has also just signed a five-year contract with Surrey – no surprise given the season he has had since scoring a hundred on his debut against Cambridge University in May.

"At the start of the season I was just hoping to play as many Second XI games as possible, and enough Norwich Union League matches to show what I can do," said a bewildered Clarke, who has gone on to score his maiden Championship century and is presently averaging 50.

He has been nurtured as an all-rounder, but after spending a winter in South Africa and having his batting technique reconstructed by the former Proteas captain, Kepler Wessels, his bowling, by his own admission, has been somewhat left behind.

The Surrey coach, Keith Medlycott, said: "He has the ability to get the best players in the world out, but he will also know that he needs to hone his bowling. It needs smoothing out." Right now, though, England need him, rough edges and all, and if Clarke's script-writer gets it right, then the Surrey man should take the winning wicket or score the winning run, since 29 September is his 21st birthday.