Fast bowlers Liam Norwell and Olly Stone will hopefully be back in Warwickshire's first team mix quite soon.
The two pace spearheads have been ruled out of recent Bears games by back and hip injuries respectively, but are making progress towards a return.
When the Bears will have Chris Woakes available again remains harder to predict, however, as the England all-rounder continues to be troubled by a knee problem
“Liam is probably the closest to a return,” said first team coach Mark Robinson. “He has had a tough time with one thing after another, with concussion from a nasty blow on the head and now a back injury. But he has had an injection and is scheduled to start building up his work today and if it settles down, and he gets the right amount of overs in, he may come into contention for the Championship game at home to Lancashire
“Stoney has had a niggle around his hip cartilage which he picked up in a Second XI match. We thought we had got him back but then he aggravated it in a club game, but he is progressing and is probably about ten to 14 days away from ready, depending how quickly it heals. We are definitely hoping he will play some part in the Blast, though whether he will have the overs under his belt to play a four-day game in that interim period, we don’t know.”
Mark Robinson
Woakes, meanwhile, remains under treatment for an injury which has proved extremely frustrating since he was originally pencilled in to play in the Championship match against Somerset at Taunton at the end of April.
“Chris is the hardest one to call,” said Robinson. “He has been struggling with a longstanding knee injury and has also had a little ailment with his ankle, but it’s the knee injury that is holding him back. At the moment there is no timescale on when he will be back.
“It is frustrating. If we had got lucky and Woakes, Stone and Norwell had been in the team at Headingley last week the game would have looked a lot different but, as it was, it was good experience for Henry Brookes and also Nathan McAndrew who is relatively inexperienced in red ball cricket.”
