England suffer Mark Wood injury blow as Nkrumah Bonner inspires West Indies

An injury scare for Mark Wood overshadowed England’s struggles to bowl the West Indies out as Nkrumah Bonner took his side into a third-day lead in the first Test.

Nkrumah Bonner was closing in on a marathon hundred at tea in Antigua, with 98 not out from 255 balls as his side reached 322 for seven – an 11-run lead.

England’s frustrations were elevated by concerns over Wood, their fastest and most in-form bowler. He is being treated for an elbow complaint and spent the entire afternoon session off the field with medical staff.

The 32-year-old, whose right arm was heavily strapped, bowled just five overs in the morning session, including a second spell of just six balls, and faces an uncertain role in the remainder of the match.

England do not expect him to feature again the West Indies first innings, an unwanted headache given Ollie Robinson is already missing from the attack after suffering from back spasms last week.

Having controversially overlooked James Anderson and Stuart Broad for this tour to empower others, England are now facing a potentially awkward shortage of quicks.

Uncapped duo Saqib Mahmood and Matt Fisher are the spare pace options, but England may soon have to consider flying in reinforcements.

With Wood struggling, England were unable to knock over the Windies. Bonner was in familiar territory, having scored his only previous Test hundred at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium against Sri Lanka a year ago.

He showed superb powers of concentration to repeatedly defy England’s efforts on a pitch that was showing tell-tale signs of going to sleep. He survived one half-chance on 40, when a top-edge off Ben Stokes fell agonisingly short of mid-wicket, and had a more clear-cut lifeline on 73 when Zak Crawley put