\n<\/p>\n
England spinner Jack Leach is to have surgery on the left knee injury that cut short his tour of India.<\/span><\/p>\n The opening Test of the series was Leach’s first since missing the Ashes, but he suffered an injury in the field that caused severe swelling.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Leach completed the first Test, missed the second, then returned home and will have the operation on Tuesday.<\/span><\/p>\n “I’m going to have an operation to get the rest of the swelling out because it’s not budging,” said Leach.<\/span><\/p>\n This is another setback for Leach, who suffers from Crohn’s disease and missed the home series against Australia last summer because of a stress fracture in his back.<\/span><\/p>\n The 32-year-old feared for his life when he contracted sepsis on the tour of New Zealand in 2019.<\/span><\/p>\n Despite the knee injury, Leach was still able to bowl 36 overs in England’s superb first-Test win over India in Hyderabad, often in short spells.<\/span><\/p>\n “It was quite an unfortunate one,” Leach told BBC Radio 5 Live. “It was the second ball of the first innings in the field so that whole game I was playing with this knee problem. <\/span><\/p>\n “I obviously knocked it a few times throughout that game and it has just created a long period of recovery.<\/span><\/p>\n “I need to get the operation done and then hopefully I can get back to playing cricket. I’d love to have a run of playing cricket and getting into a bit of a rhythm again and hopefully that can happen again once I’ve got this sorted.”<\/span><\/p>\n England’s first Test of the summer is against West Indies at Lord’s on 10 July, while Leach’s Somerset begin their County Championship campaign away to Kent on 5 April.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n