England's star batsman Kevin Pietersen has been ruled out of tour of Australia after breaking a rib in the opening match of the Commonwealth Bank Series.
Pietersen walked into a short ball from Glenn McGrath late on in his innings of 82 and the impact caused a fracture on the right side of his ribcage.
Scans at a local hospital showed the damage and the medical assessment suggests he will be out of action for between three and five weeks.
Pietersen, 26, was the one genuine success of England's dreadful Ashes campaign, scoring 490 runs, and has been the one-day team's main batsman since making his debut two years ago.
England, who will now have to prepare for the World Cup without the world's number two-ranked one-day batsman, are set to name a replacement within 24 hours.
Pietersen will return home to the UK as soon as possible and begin his recuperation ahead of the trip to the Caribbean on 2 March.
