Paul Collingwood hoping for positive update after Ollie Robinson back spasm

England interim coach Paul Collingwood admitted his concern at seeing Ollie Robinson suffer a back injury on Thursday, but he has not given up hope of a positive update ahead of next week’s first Test against the West Indies.

Robinson departed in discomfort on the third morning of the warm-up clash against the CWI President’s XI in Antigua and will not feature on the fourth and final day.

He suffered similar problems during his previous competitive outing, England’s Ashes humiliation in Hobart back in January, and there were public criticisms of his conditioning by the management on that trip.

Having taken the divisive decision to drop record wicket-takers James Anderson and Stuart Broad from the three-match series, the tourists now find themselves in a dicey position with their bowling attack.

Mark Wood also sat out on Thursday, having suffered from illness over the past couple of days, but despite sending him for precautionary blood tests, they expect him to return to the side and bowl at some stage on Friday.

With question marks over two of their first-choice pace options, uncapped duo Saqib Mahmood and Matt Fisher – both of whom were parachuted into the match at short notice – stand by.

“Ollie has got a back spasm, it’s not ideal. It’s hard to say at the moment, but when someone walks off like that it doesn’t look good,” said Collingwood.

“These kind of spasms can heal as quickly as they come. We’ll just have to assess it. I certainly don’t think Ollie will be bowling on day four, that would be too much of a risk.”

Collingwood offered some sympathetic words to Robinson, who was directly challenged to improve his fitness by bowling coach Jon Lewis in Australia.

I'm sure he understands his body pretty well from county