Derbyshire could look for replacement overseas player after Suranga Lakmal injury

Mickey Arthur, the county's head of cricket, admitted that the elbow problem suffered by the Sri Lankan seamer "looks pretty bad"

Derbyshire could be forced to look for a replacement overseas player following an injury to Suranga Lakmal.

Mickey Arthur, the county's head of cricket, admitted that the elbow problem suffered by the Sri Lankan seamer "looks pretty bad".

The 34-year-old seamer signed a two-year-deal in February and has since retired from international cricket, but he has already bowled more first-class deliveries in 2022 than in any other year of his professional career.

"We have a problem with Suranga, unfortunately," Arthur told the ECB Reporters Network. "We will have some proper news on that during the week but we are looking potentially at a replacement for him."

^{Lakmal has taken 15 first-class wickets for Derbyshire (Alex Davidson/Getty Images)}

Lakmal has bowled 213.5 overs since the start of April in the LV= Insurance County Championship – only Sam Conners has been used more among Derbyshire's seamers – and has taken 15 wickets, once again second only to Conners. He has picked up a solitary five-wicket haul, doing so in the draw with Glamorgan.

His injury is the latest to afflict Derbyshire, who earlier in the week signed Liam Hurt on loan following a recurrence of a hamstring injury to Ryan Sidebottom, who himself was on an emergency loan deal.

Anuj Dal was injured ahead of their just-concluded defeat by Nottinghamshire, while Luis Reece couldn't bowl in the second innings due to a groin issue.