Northamptonshire have been dealt a blow with the news that limited-overs captain Alex Wakely will miss the 2014 season after suffering a ruptured Achilles tendon.
The 25-year-old batsman led the Steelbacks to victory in last season’s Friends Life t20 and penned a new two-year deal earlier in the year.
In 2013, as well as scoring 366 List A runs and a Twenty20 aggregate of 214, Wakely added 457 runs in the LV= County Championship as Northants sealed promotion to Division One.
Wakely will undergo an operation on Monday to repair the damage, with a lengthy period of rehabilitation to follow.