The Ashes: Jonathon Trott flies home with stress-related illness

Jonathon Trott has left England’s Ashes tour of Australia and returned home because of a stress-related illness, the English Cricket Board has said. Trott has reportedly been dealing with the illness for some time and his departure is not connected with David Warner’s comments about Trott being afraid of Mitchell Johnson’s pace.

Trott will not play any further part in the tour and will be taking an indefinite break from cricket, the ECB said.

I don’t feel it’s right that I’m playing knowing that I’m not 100 percent and I cannot currently operate at the level I have done in the past,” Trott said in a statement. “My priority now is to take a break from cricket so that I can focus on my recovery. I want to wish my team mates all the very best for the remainder of the tour.”

According to the Daily Mail, ECB managing director Hugh Morris and head coach Andy Flower broke the news to the media in Australia.

“Jonathan Trott is an incredibly talented cricketer who has proven himself time and again for England,” Morris said . “The cricket side of things is unimportant now. All that matters is that Jonathan is given the time, support and space he needs to recover.”

The England camp also said that Trott’s departure had nothing to do with Warner’s comments about Trott’s performance in the first Test. Trott was caught off Mitchell Johnson fending at a bouncer and Warner, who made a second-innings hundred to help set-up Australia’s massive 381-run win, called Trott’s dismissal “pretty poor and weak”.

The comments, made at a media conference after stumps on day three, were condemned by England captain Alastair Cook as “disrespectful”.