Burns cuts short Leicestershire stay

Joe Burns, the Australian batsman who has been representing Leicestershire as an overseas player, is to return home early due to injury.

Burns, who has previously suffered a shin problem, will return to Australia to have treatment on a minor hip injury in the hope that he is fully fit to represent Brisbane Heat in the Champions League from mid-September.

"Joe has a hip injury which has gradually got worse," Leicestershire's head coach Phil Whitticase told the Leicester Mercury. "He said he was up for selection for our last two T20 games, but he needs to get back to Queensland for their physio to look at the injury.

"They have the Champions League coming up and Joe wants to be part of that. So we are happy to send him back - had the roles been reversed, then we would want our player back."

Burns, 23, has enjoyed only modest success. In five Championship matches, he reached 50 only once, failed to register a century and averaged 30.57. He averaged 28.15 in the FLt20 (at a strike rate of 129.60) and just 16.40 in five Yorkshire Bank 40 games.

Leicestershire are not expected to replace Burns. They plan to have the West Indies batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan back from international duty for the final few weeks of the season and will use Burns' absence to take a look at a few younger players.

Jigar Naik, the offspinner, has also been ruled out for the rest of the season after dislocating his shoulder. Naik had an operation on the shoulder after sustaining the injury in the T20 victory over Nottinghamshire and his rehabilitation is expected to take four months.

Leicestershire are currently bottom of the Division Two Championship table, having failed to win any of their first 10 games, and failed to qualify for the quarter-finals of the FLt20.