Ollie Pope Forced to Field Despite Shoulder Injury By Umpires, Sparks Outrage in England Camp

Ollie Pope suffered shoulder injury twice in a game | Source: Twitter 

England batter and vice captain Ollie Pope will stay in the game and continue playing in the ongoing second Test at Lord's despite hurting his shoulders for the second time during the third day's play, spin bowling coach Jeetan Patel confirmed on Friday. 

During Australia's first innings, Ollie Pope injured his shoulder while diving to stop a ball, prompting him to take a brief break from the field to apply ice. However, later he came back to bat at number three for England, showing no lingering signs of the injury. 

In Australia's second innings, during the 18th over, Pope re-aggravated his injury, and it was expected that he would leave the field. 

However, the umpires insisted the right-handed batter to stay on the field; otherwise, England would have had to play with only ten on-field players, a decision that didn’t sit well with the England camp. 

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Here’s what Jeetan Patel said: 

"We're a bit bewildered by it all. It's a bit confusing. We assumed that he was asked that he had to be back out on the field or we would have to field with ten men. And that made no sense to us."

Expressing his displeasure with the situation and how it has been handled, Patel added: 

"It's a pretty tough situation when you nearly bust your shoulder, and you're told it was an external [injury]. It was always going to happen. He's so committed to this team. He was always going to fall on something. And now he's back off."

"It's a bit messy if I'm being honest with you. We're probably as frustrated as everyone else that was out there that saw what happened, and he's probably more angry at the situation than anything else."

Ollie Pope will come out to bat: Jeetan Patel

As things stand, Australia is in the driver's seat, and unless England can engineer a collapse early on day four, they will face a mammoth target in the fourth innings. 

In the event of such a scenario, England would undoubtedly require Pope’s services, and Patel has confirmed that the England vice-captain will retain his batting position and will come out to bat for the hosts in the fourth inning chase. 

"He is sore, but he should be okay. He's never going to turn down an opportunity to bat for England, and with an opportunity to win a game, I can't see Ollie Pope saying no to that."

England were all out for 325 in their first innings. Australia were 130/2 at stumps on day three in their second innings, with a lead of 221.

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