Ahead of the Manchester Originals face-off against Southern Brave, star player Sophie Ecclestone suffered a freakish mishap which led to her non-bowling arm (right arm) shoulder getting dislocated.
The left-arm orthodox bowler looked in considerable pain, as she had to be taken off the pitch, which even required assistance to help her walk off the pitch. Sophie suffered the injury in the warm-up prior to the game against Southern Brave.
Sophie was later taken to hospital for further scans and assessments. During the match, she was seen in slings while standing on the team’s balcony.
On Saturday 26th August, the England and Wales Cricket Board confirmed the nature of the injury and also said that she will miss the WBBL.
RULED OUT 😲
Sophie Ecclestone dislocated her right shoulder ahead of Manchester Originals' match against Southern Brave this week.
She will miss WBBL 2023.#CricketTwitter #WBBL pic.twitter.com/7fvvJxYCmo
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) August 26, 2023
The no.1 ranked white ball bowler had enrolled her name for the inaugural draft of foreign players in the WBBL. But now due to the untimely injury, she has withdrawn her name. Sophie was seen as a player who was a sure-shot starter for whichever team she played for. She was certainly one of those players who is on the top of the team’s priority list, so now it will be a huge blow for the teams.
Last year, Sophie was a central cog in Sydney Sixers’ run to the finals, as she struck a total of 20 times from 15 innings. She had a decent economy rate of 6.29 throughout the tournament. Sophie was Sydney Sixers’ second-highest wicket-taker just behind Ashleigh Gardner, who scalped 23 wickets.
Before her untimely injury, Sophie was enjoying a decent season individually with the ball as she got 7 wickets from 5 innings, at an economy rate of 6.5.
Earlier, England’s head coach Jon Lewis had decided to give rest to Sophie Ecclestone for the upcoming home series against Sri Lanka which will consist of 3 T20Is and 3 ODIs. The main reason for the rest was workload management as she has been playing relentlessly, as she has played a total of 26 matches across formats since the start of the year.
Ecclestone was also instrumental in helping England win the limited-overs formats in the Women’s Ashes 2023. In the one-off test, Ecclestone got 10 wickets from both the innings. Ecclestone was also the top wicket-taker in the shortest format of the series, as she picked 5 wickets from 3 innings at an economy rate of 7.60.
It is still not known for how much time Sophie will be out of action. An update about the same can be expected soon from the ECB.