Bird joins Oz bowlers leaving Ashes tour due to back injury

Australian pacer Jackson Bird has reportedly become the latest Australia bowler to leave the Ashes tour of England early due to injury.

Confirming Bird's departure, a Cricket Australia (CA) statement said that Bird would return to Australia to receive further assessment and treatment on a low back injury.

According to Sport24, the Tasmania paceman's only appearance in the ongoing Ashes series was during the fourth Test in Durham where he took two for 58 and none for 67 in a match England won by 74 runs to take an unbeatable 3-0 lead.

The report further said that Bird, who is the third promising Australia seamer along with James Pattinson and Pat Cummins to be laid low by a back problem in recent weeks, was not selected for the fifth and final match of the Ashes series at The Oval, with his place taken by Mitchell Starc.

Bird's departure follows that of teenage spinner Ashton Agar, whom CA said Tuesday would be leaving the Ashes tour early due to illness, the report added.