The Ashes: England’s Mark Wood leaves field with tight hamstring in Lions tour match

He seemed in good spirits when he left the field, joking with England Lions batter Jordan Cox, whom he had just caught on the boundary.

But any injury to Wood will be a huge worry to England given his injury record.

Wood has not played a Test since August 2024, when he was ruled out of the rest of that year because of an elbow injury.

He returned in white-ball cricket at the beginning of this year but sustained a knee injury at the Champions Trophy which subsequently required surgery.

The hamstring problem is in the same leg on which Wood had the knee operation.

The tour match against the Lions was Wood’s first cricket of any kind in nine months and his first in whites for 15 months.

Still, on a slow pitch he was immediately up to high pace, hitting 91mph in his first spell.

The England selection for the tour game appeared to hint at their plans for the first Test, with Wood part of a five-man pace attack and frontline spinner Shoaib Bashir playing for the Lions.

In recent years spin has played a diminished role in Tests in Australia, and Optus Stadium, the venue for the first Test against Australia starting on 21 November, is particularly suited to seam.

Another England pace bowler, Brydon Carse, missed the first day of the tour match through illness but is expected to join the game in the coming days.

England captain Ben Stokes claimed four wickets in the first two sessions in his first action since July.

The all-rounder has been out since missing the final Test of the series against India with a shoulder injury.

Australia captain and fast bowler Pat Cummins is out of the first Test with a back injury, while fellow seamer Josh Hazlewood has been cleared of a hamstring problem after an injury scare on Wednesday.