England and Sussex seamer Jofra Archer has been ruled out for the season after being diagnosed with a stress fracture to the lower back.
Archer has not played for England since their T20I series in India last March and has undergone three bouts of surgery in the last 14 months with one on his hand to remove a shard of glass, and two on his elbow.
The 27-year-old trained with England in Barbados as part of his rehabilitation earlier this year and he had planned on making his comeback for Sussex in their opening Blast fixture against Glamorgan later this month.
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There were hopes that he could play some T20 cricket for England before the end of the season but the latest injury has put paid to any prospect of that.
A statement from the England and Wales Cricket Board read: "After being diagnosed with a stress fracture to the lower back, England and Sussex seamer Jofra Archer has been ruled out for the rest of the season.
"No timeframe has been set for his return. A management plan will be determined following further specialist opinion over the coming days."
He is the third England bowler to be diagnosed with a stress fracture in the past week, with Lancashire's Saqib Mahmood and Yorkshire's Matthew Fisher both receiving similar news.
The Barbados-born quick enjoyed a sensational start to his England career after becoming eligible in 2019, immediately assuming a central role in the one-day team's victorious World Cup campaign and delivering the tense super over that sealed the trophy.
He then proved his credentials with the red ball, making an unforgettable Test debut at Lord's in the Ashes. During that match he bowled a fearsome, hostile spell against Steve Smith that saw the Australia batter become the first player to be substituted under concussion protocols.
But he has managed just 12 more Test appearances since then, with his elbow problems repeatedly forcing him out of contention. England initially tried to treat the joint with injections but eventually conceded that surgery would be necessary.
Director of men's cricket Rob Key admitted on Wednesday that the loss of multiple bowlers to injury is an area England must address.
"It's definitely a concern and trying to find out why this is happening is something that we need to look into and make sure, hopefully it never happens again," Key told reporters.
"As you know with all fast bowlers, unfortunately these are the things that do happen, stress fractures in particular.
"We're going to need to try and get across that as best we can so we can have as many options as possible."
Archer missed a T20 World Cup and an Ashes tour this winter, but was optimistic that the worst was behind him. Writing for the Daily Mail earlier this month, he said: "In a situation like this, when you are forced to have operations, you do think about whether you are going to play cricket again, whether you're going to play all formats even.
"At one point I thought I was going to lose my contract when things weren't going well, but now I have confidence about what the future holds. Yes, there have been two surgeries, but honestly, I couldn't have written my rehab comeback any better."
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Sky Sports News reporter James Cole:
"England are already without fast bowlers Olly Stone, Sam Curran, Mark Wood, Chris Woakes and Ollie Robinson.
"A big blow for Archer and England, and you really have to feel for him, given he's not played international cricket for 14 months.
"He's had two operations on his elbow. There will also be doubts as to whether he can get back to full fitness for the T20 World Cup in Australia at the end of the year.
"He's 27, he's still young, but the big concern is whether he can get back to bowling at that extreme pace that made him such a potent weapon for England."
Lockdown to blame for spate of stress fractures?
The after-effects of the coronavirus lockdown could be a contributing factor to the spate of stress fractures among England bowlers, according to an ECB research specialist.
Alongside Archer, Mahmood and Fisher, the likes of Olly Stone, Sam Curran and Tom Curran are all on the way back after succumbing to the problem. Each individual case carries its own specifics, but the cluster of breakdowns is a major cause for concern for the national side.
Cases had been trending downwards for several years until the recent dramatic spike and Dr Peter Alway, research and operations manager at the ECB with a PhD in the field of lumbar stress fractures, believes the the sudden interruption of the pandemic could be part of the reason.
"Covid lockdowns deconditioned bowlers a considerable amount. It could be a contributing factor," Alway said. "There was a time in lockdown where I saw videos of some very tall fast bowlers bowling against their walls in London flats.
"Our research shows that when players get stress fractures in the first six to eight weeks where they are inactive or doing low cardio, they lose three to five per cent of their lumbar bone density. Any time you take away the stimulus of fast bowling on the spine, you have the same effect.
"We had been seeing some really promising trends up to last season, but what's happened over the last few weeks has blown our numbers up.
"That number may not seem like a lot but the rate of loss is equivalent to what we see from astronauts in space. It's basically as fast as anyone has ever seen bone density decrease.
"Fast bowlers have very, very adapted spines. The loads are around 100 times the impact of running and, in response, they get super dense spines. But if you don't bowl for a while that adaptation decreases and you lose the protection offered by it."