England Women have suffered a major injury setback at the start of their tour of the Caribbean, with Alice Capsey sustaining a broken collarbone after landing heavily in the field during the first ODI in Antigua on Sunday.
Capsey, 18, had been promoted to open the batting for the first time, making 17 from 13 balls, but is set to fly home from the UK and is now a serious doubt for the rest of England's winter engagements, including the T20 World Cup in South Africa in February.
"Alice Capsey sustained an injury on the field during the first ODI against West Indies Women," read an ECB statement. "Upon further examination, she has broken her left collar bone and will be unavailable for the remainder of the tour. Capsey will now return home to the UK."
The injury occurred as Capsey dived at fine leg to intercept a top-edged hook during England's 142-run win the first ODI. She was in obvious pain as she remained on the ground for several minutes to receive treatment, but was eventually able to walk from the field before being taken to hospital for further treatment.
It's a major setback both for Capsey personally, but also for England, who had hoped to bed her into her new top-order role, alongside Sophia Dunkley, as part of a new more attacking outlook under the incoming head coach Jon Lewis.
Capsey was awarded her first ECB central contract in November, and had just returned from her maiden stint with Melbourne Stars in the Women's Big Bash.
Nat Sciver, the senior allrounder who made her comeback from a three-month mental health break to be named Player of the Match for her decisive innings of 90 off 96 balls, said she and the team were "gutted" for Capsey.
"When anyone goes down on the pitch you're not really sure what's happened and it's a weird thing to stand as a group on the pitch and feel sorry for your team-mate, feel sorry for your friend," Sciver said.
"We found out this morning that she's going home, so just really, really gutted for her. She'll be back, she'll be back firing, I'm sure.
"It's a broken collarbone and I don't know how long that means the recovery time is. She'll be as gutted as anyone really to be missing out on this trip and I don't know what that means for the new year."