Joyce confident of return within weeks

Ed Joyce lies injured at The Rose Bowl © Getty Images

Ed Joyce is confident that he will be back in action in less than six weeks after suffering an ankle injury during the Twenty20 international at The Rose Bowl last week.

"I had a scan and apparently I've done some ligament damage to the ankle, so everything's not OK, but it's better than I thought it would be at the time," Joyce told the BBC. "You've got to take these things on the chin and come back stronger. I am seeing the specialist on Wednesday and he'll actually get to see the ankle then. He only saw the scans on Monday."

"It's very bruised, but there's not a lot swelling. He guessed at two to six weeks, in other words he didn't really know at that stage. The way it feels now, it feels like I can nearly put all my weight on it. I can't turn or anything but hopefully it's just two to four weeks and I'll be back."

But there was less encouragement from John Emburey, Joyce's coach at Middlesex, who said that the injury could have put paid to his Ashes chances. "Ed could now lose his opportunity of going away with England in the winter," Emburey told The Sun. "He will have to start getting runs immediately [when] he comes back. He has the ability and temperament to do it but it's going to be tough work for him to get through it and make a case for one of the winter tours."