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Cape Town - South Africa all-rounder Chris Morris has been called into their Champions Trophy squad after paceman Morne Morkel was ruled out of the tournament through injury.
Morkel hurt his groin in Thursday's opening Group B loss to India in Cardiff and has been ruled out for the next three weeks, having been forced to bat as last man with the problem.
The 26-year-old Morris has yet to play for his country in one-day internationals but did feature in two Twenty20 internationals.
"Morne had an MRI scan done on him last night and it confirmed a Grade 1 injury to his left quadricep muscle," Proteas team manager Mohammed Moosajee said in a statement on Friday.
"His recovery time will take almost three weeks because the scan also detected a tear to the connecting tissue that surrounds the muscle which is called a myofascial tear, so that rules him out of the tournament."
The loss of Morkel will further weaken a South African pace attack that was already missing Dale Steyn against India. The latter's future participation in the Champions Trophy remains in doubt.
"Dale as we know is a work in progress, the challenge for us is that we can only get him bowling once he is completely symptom free. If you allow fast bowlers to bowl too early you can aggravate the injury and go back to square one," Moosajee said.
"Brandon Jackson our physiotherapist is working hard on him and we are taking it day by day, we will get a better indication of where he is at tomorrow at our net session in Birmingham."
South Africa next face Pakistan in a likely must-win fixture on Monday.
Morkel hurt his groin in Thursday's opening Group B loss to India in Cardiff and has been ruled out for the next three weeks, having been forced to bat as last man with the problem.
The 26-year-old Morris has yet to play for his country in one-day internationals but did feature in two Twenty20 internationals.
"Morne had an MRI scan done on him last night and it confirmed a Grade 1 injury to his left quadricep muscle," Proteas team manager Mohammed Moosajee said in a statement on Friday.
"His recovery time will take almost three weeks because the scan also detected a tear to the connecting tissue that surrounds the muscle which is called a myofascial tear, so that rules him out of the tournament."
The loss of Morkel will further weaken a South African pace attack that was already missing Dale Steyn against India. The latter's future participation in the Champions Trophy remains in doubt.
"Dale as we know is a work in progress, the challenge for us is that we can only get him bowling once he is completely symptom free. If you allow fast bowlers to bowl too early you can aggravate the injury and go back to square one," Moosajee said.
"Brandon Jackson our physiotherapist is working hard on him and we are taking it day by day, we will get a better indication of where he is at tomorrow at our net session in Birmingham."
South Africa next face Pakistan in a likely must-win fixture on Monday.
