Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli’s much talked about county stint with Surrey before the England Tour is unlikely to take off after the 29-year-old was diagnosed with a slipped (herniated disc), according to a report in Mumbai Mirror.
The report claimed that the problem was disagnosed by one of the top orthopaedic surgeons in Mumbai, who has told the cricketer that he may end up missing the England Test series if he goes ahead and plays country cricket instead of taking rest as it could only aggravate the problem.
The name of the doctor was not disclosed in the report.
According to the report, Kohli visited the specialist surgeon on Wednesday and the team of doctors apprised him of the extent of damage to the spinal nerve but have ruled out the need for surgery.
The 29-year-old had missed a one-day international during the South Africa tour due to a neck strain but it is still not clear what promoted the Indian skipper to seek out a doctor soon after the Indian Premier League.
Kohli has made winning a Test series in England his mission and wanted to play county cricket to get acclimatise to the conditions before the tour. The club and the player had announced their association earlier this month and was even prepared for skip the Test against Afghanistan to prepare for England, where he could only manage a total of 134 runs in five Tests in the last tour in 2014.
The skipper was, however, named in the T20 International squad against Ireland despite his Surrey commitments and that had created confusion within the BCCI.
The report claimed that Kohli have already conveyed his unavailability to Surrey but the spokesperson of the county club has said that he wasn’t aware of such a development.
