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England batter Ollie Pope has been ruled out of the rest of the Ashes series with a dislocated shoulder.
England’s vice-captain was injured diving in the field during the second Test at Lord’s, which Australia won to take a 2-0 series lead.
Scans on Monday showed Pope, 25, would require surgery and has been ruled out for the rest of the summer.
Batter Dan Lawrence is the most likely replacement for the third Test, which starts at Headingley on Thursday.
Essex’s Lawrence, 25, is the only spare batter in England’s squad. England have said they will not call up a replacement for the Leeds Test, ruling out a possible recall for Surrey wicketkeeper Ben Foakes.
Lawrence averages 29 from 11 Tests but has not played since the tour to the West Indies in March 2022, before captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum took charge.
“Ollie has stepped up as vice-captain and the more responsibility we’ve given to him, the more we’ve got out of him as a player,” England batter Joe Root said.
“He’ll be a big miss for us. He’s an integral part of the team.”
Pope has injured his right shoulder, after dislocating his left shoulder twice before having surgery on it in 2020.
On this occasion he sustained the injury in the first innings at Lord’s before coming out and making 42 with the bat.
The right-hander than took to the field in Australia’s second innings – amid confusion over the umpires saying he had to do so – and aggravated the injury.
He scored 205 against Ireland at the start of the summer before scores of 31, 14, 42 and 13 in the Ashes.
A left-field option to replace him in Leeds would be to move the batters up a place in the order and recall Moeen Ali at number seven, with the possibility of bringing in Chris Woakes for a bowler to further strengthen the batting.
In Tuesday’s pre-match media conference, former captain Root did not rule out moving up to number three, where he has batted 33 times.
