Victorian skipper diagnosed with a stress fracture in his shoulder following their Sheffield Shield final loss
Victorian captain Will Sutherland’s English summer has been scuppered by injury yet again with the allrounder ruled out of his stint with Yorkshire.
Cricket Victoria confirmed on Tuesday that Sutherland had been diagnosed with a stress fracture in his right shoulder after Yorkshire announced overnight he would no longer be joining the club for this year’s T20 Blast and two County Championship matches in May and June.
The 26-year-old played through low-level discomfort at the end of the Australian domestic season, but it didn’t stop him from taking six wickets in Victoria’s Sheffield Shield final loss to South Australia.
After a de-load period of three weeks following the end of the home summer, the right-armer experienced pain in his bowling shoulder this week during an increase his training workloads in preparation for his county stint.
Understandably, Victoria have taken a cautious approach with the state and Melbourne Renegades skipper given his history with stress injuries.
Sutherland has now missed three of four planned county seasons due to injuries. In 2023 he was due to play for Essex before being forced to withdraw because of a lower back stress fracture, while in 2024, he was ruled out of stint with Somerset with another back injury.
He did play for Yorkshire in 2025, taking 10 wickets in 12 T20 matches and scoring 208 runs, including 58 from 30 balls with six sixes against Northamptonshire. Sutherland also played three red-ball matches during his time with the Leeds-based county club last year.
Yorkshire are yet to announce a replacement for Sutherland but already have West Australians Jhye Richardson and Sam Whiteman playing for them this season.
Sutherland played eight Sheffield Shield matches during the Australian season, the most he had since 2023-24, hitting form towards the end of the summer with an unbeaten 101 against WA and 51 in round 10 against SA. He also took 15 wickets in Victoria’s last four games, including the final.
Sutherland said previously it was easier to manage his body ahead of the Shield final given the Vics locked up hosting rights with two rounds to spare.
“I definitely had this game in the back of my mind … to be building towards and made sure that my body would be as good as it has been over the past six months,” he said after their loss to SA in the decider.
“A few painkillers and Red Bulls don’t go astray either.
“It’s pretty easy to get up for finals, for this (Victorian) group and crack in and try my best, but (it wasn’t) to be.”
Separately, Sutherland’s Victorian and Renegades teammate Oliver Peake was announced as San Francisco Unicorns’ last signing for this year’s Major League Cricket season overnight.
The 19-year-old rising star will link up with his Renegades coach Cameron White, who is also in charge of the Unicorns, as well as Australian internationals Matt Short, Aaron Hardie and Cooper Connolly. Indian great Ravichandran Ashwin has also been signed by the San Francisco franchise this season.
Australians in the 2026 County Championship
Derbyshire: Caleb Jewell
Glamorgan: Nathan McAndrew (June)
Gloucestershire: Cameron Bancroft, Gabe Bell (first six matches), Liam Scott (June)
Hampshire: Jake Lehmann
Lancashire: Marcus Harris
Leicestershire: Jake Weatherald
Northamptonshire: Nathan McSweeney, Harry Conway (first two months only)
Nottinghamshire: Fergus O’Neill (April-June only)
Surrey: Sean Abbott (first half of season)
Sussex: Daniel Hughes
Warwickshire: Beau Webster (first half of season)
Yorkshire: Sam Whiteman, Jhye Richardson (until mid-May)
