Ashes 2023: Nathan Lyon expected to be ruled out for the rest of the series with calf injury

Nathan Lyon arrived at Lord’s on crutches ahead of day three and all signs point to the Aussie star missing the rest of the Ashes series. Here’s the latest.

Australian superstar Nathan Lyon is expected to be ruled out of the rest of the Ashes series after suffering a calf injury on day two of the Lord’s Test.

While Cricket Australia on Friday morning left the door ajar to Lyon playing a further role in the series, the tweaker arrived at the ground on crutches and all signs point to him missing the remaining three Tests.

It would be a seismic blow for Australia to lose a bowler who was on track to be the leading wicket-taker this series.

It means Todd Murphy is set to fill the shoes of Australia’s greatest ever off-spinner for the third Test starting Thursday next week.

Australia will have to rely on Travis Head and to a lesser extent Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne to provide the spin overs to get them through the rest of the second Test.

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Nathan Lyon on crutches ahead of the start of day three. Picture: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images

Lyon could be ruled out for the series after suffering a calf injury. Picture: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images

Working against Lyon is the fact that this is the most congested Ashes series of all time, meaning there’s precious little wiggle room for him to make a miracle recovery.

“Nathan Lyon has been diagnosed with a significant calf strain,” CA said on Friday.

“He will require a period of rehabilitation after this match is concluded. A decision regarding his availability for the remainder of the series will be made at the conclusion of the game.”

Australian vice-captain Smith said Lyon had taken the injury hard.

“He was pretty shattered last night, as you can imagine,” Smith told Channel Nine.

“He was very keen to have an impact in this game. It’s going to be a big loss for us.”

It is conceivable Lyon could yet bat in the match.

Cricket sources indicated the injury could rule Lyon out for months. Australia does not have further Test commitments after the Ashes until a home series against Pakistan beginning in December.

The injury was a particularly ironic blow, given Lyon was playing his 100th consecutive Test, a streak which began in the third Test of the 2013 Ashes.

Lyon arrives at Lords on day three. Picture: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images

Having taken the wicket of Zak Crawley on Thursday, Lyon was just four scalps away from becoming the eighth man to take 500 Test wickets.

Smith had on Thursday backed Murphy to perform if needed.

“It‘s not ideal, particularly your spin bowler. It’s one role. Batter I suppose there’s loads of us around so it’s a bit different. I think Nathan’s obviously, if he’s no good, it’d be a huge loss,” Smith said.

“However Todd Murphy is waiting in the wings. He has been bowling beautifully in the nets and bowled really well in India when he got his opportunity as well. So, you know, I’d be confident if he came in he’d do a terrific job for us, but fingers crossed Nathan’s all right.”

How will Aussies cope without trump card Lyon?

“You’ve got to make sure you enjoy it and celebrate it because you never know when it’s your last.” – Nathan Lyon, June 26, 2023.

When speaking publicly, Australia’s most prolific off-spinner in history tends to quip that he doesn’t like talking about himself.

But in his own understated, homespun bush way, Lyon is on occasion quite profound.

His words on Monday, two days before what was due to be his 100th consecutive Test, were laced with quiet meaning. An unlikely career that 10 years earlier had reached a crossroads when he was omitted for the start of an Ashes series, was on the verge of spawning a 500th Test wicket.

Nathan Lyon has been the mainstay of Australia’s attack through 100 Tests.

Lyon had played hero with both bat and ball a week earlier in Birmingham, and the series win in England that he had so craved was within striking distance.

However Lyon also speaks like a man who has faced moments before in which he wondered whether it might all come to end quickly. He’s had to graft for his success, and for all his durability, he appreciates how precarious the whole circus can be.

His perspective became dreadfully prescient at Lord’s on Thursday afternoon, when racing from the outfield to intercept a Ben Duckett pull shot, Lyon stopped short.

He was limping almost immediately and needed to be helped around the outfield by Australian team physio Nick Jones. It screamed calf injury, and that much was confirmed by Cricket Australia later in the afternoon. The extent of the damage was unclear, but it did not look good. With the remaining three Tests to be wrapped up by the end of July, Lyon’s further involvement in this Ashes looks clouded at best.

Nathan Lyon being helped from the field by Australian team physio Nick Jones. Picture: Ian Kington / AFP

Suddenly, Australia was facing something it hasn’t experienced in a decade. The Aussies without Lyon. It’s like The Simpsons without Homer, The Beatles without McCartney, NSW politics without corruption.

Had this happened four years ago, Australia would have had to either play the remainder of the series without a frontline spinner or summon one from back home given the Aussies didn’t even have a backup in the squad.

This time around there is at least a clear understudy. Lyon was on record before this tour saying that Todd Muprhy is the best spinner Australia has developed since Lyon made his debut more than a decade ago.

And Murphy’s entrance into both first-class and Test cricket has been very impressive. But he only has 43 first-class wickets, 14 of which came in his debut Test series in India.

He’s only 22, has never played a professional game in England, and hasn’t played a competitive match at all since the Sheffield Shield final in March.

If England was keen to punish the likes of Lyon, Mitchell Starc and in particular Scott Boland – who entered the Ashes with more than 340 first-class wickets and a Test bowling average too low to even be on its L-plates, imagine what Bazball might look to do with a callow, bespectacled and still developing spinner.

Will Australia go to Todd Murphy if Nathan Lyon is unavailable for the third test or the rest of the Ashes? Picture: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

It is a scenario Australia was hoping it would not have to contemplate. The Aussie selectors would have hoped Murphy would be allowed to ease along under Lyon’s wing – picked when two or even three spinners were deemed necessary – and able to accumulate a wider variety of first-class experiences.

Instead, he will need to be thrown into the middle of an Ashes series, unless the Aussies go pace-heavy and rely on the part-time contributions of Travis Head, Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne.

How that goes over the remainder of the Lord’s Test will shape the selectors’ thinking.

Of two teams that had appeared evenly matched at Edgbaston, the most distinct difference had been that Australia didn’t have to worry about its spin situation, and that England was choosing from a limited pool including an injured former retiree, a teenager who had been tonked so far in the county season, and Joe Root.

In an instant, Australia’s clear trump card had disappeared.

Originally published as Ashes 2023: Nathan Lyon expected to be ruled out for the rest of the series with calf injury