Fast bowler Mark Wood left the field midway through the official warm-up encounter against Australia on Saturday (May 25) due to an ankle injury to leave England worried over his chances of making it to the World Cup 2019.

Wood managed to bowl just 3.1 overs before abandoning his run-up after feeling pain in the left foot. The Durham pacer then immediately went to the hospital for a scan and took no further part in his team's 12-run defeat versus the arch-rivals in Southampton. 

"We'll see how it turns out in the morning. It can be a worry for him," said Jos Buttler, the stand-in England skipper in absence of Eoin Morgan. "He's worked really hard and it's something he's battled a bit which is a frustration for him."

"He puts in all the work, the medical staff are great with him, and I'm sure he's in the best hands. We hope for the best for him."

England takes on Afghanistan in its next warm-up game at The Oval on Monday (May 27), before kickstarting the World Cup against South Africa on May 30. And if Wood is not able to recover quickly, the three lions will have to recall left-arm pacer David Willey, who wasn't picked in the final 15-man squad. 

"Unfortunately in professional sport things like this happen," Buttler added. "Around a World Cup, everything is heightened because you want everyone to be fit and firing. We'll go through the six weeks and we'll have niggles in our team but so will other teams. It's just the nature of the game."

"It's always a bit of a worry because you want everyone to sail through the tournament 100 per cent fit but that's not the nature of how things are going to happen," he concluded. 

(Inputs from AFP)