Pietersen injury concern ahead of season

Kevin Pietersen: foot injury may mean he misses opening Championship game © Getty Images

Kevin Pietersen is in danger of missing the start of the county championship season with stress fracture of a metatarsal in his left foot. Although it is not considered too serious at the moment, the injury could rule him out of Hampshire's opening game against Gloucestershire on Wednesday.

But Pietersen is hopeful that he won't be on the sidelines for long and told BBC Sport: "I had a scan on it last week and it shows a slight stress fracture. It's in the process of healing and I might be struggling, but hopefully I'll be ready to go."

Ironically, Pietersen picked up his foot injury while he was on holiday in Australia. "I did it running on the beach in Australia a couple of weeks ago," he said. "I was stupidly doing some training on holiday. I'm doing nothing but sitting on my backside at the moment, watching the other lads play."

Pietersen, who burst onto the international scene over the winter with three hundreds against South Africa, has been tipped to go straight into the Test side against Bangladesh, as a replacement for the recuperating Andrew Flintoff. Pietersen joined Hampshire at the end of the 2004 season, after an acrimonious departure from Nottinghamshire, but his new county are now unlikely to see much of the explosive batsman once the international season starts.