ENGLAND have called up Durham’s Liam Plunkett to bolster their squad following a spate of injuries.

After Graeme Swann (back) and Tim Bresnan (calf) flew home early last week England’s already-depleted attack was weakened further following injuries to Ajmal Shahzad and Chris Tremlett on Sunday.

Shahzad injured his hamstring during the 51-run defeat in Brisbane, which saw Australia take an unassailable 4-1 lead in the ODI series with two games to play, while Tremlett failed to take his place due to a side strain.

Both players were due to undergo scans yesterday with Shahzad the more pressing case because he was, unlike Tremlett, selected in the 15- man World Cup squad.

So Plunkett, who has been on the England Lions’ tour of the West Indies, has been handed a recall.

But the Durham paceman will not arrive in time for today’s penultimate match of the series in Sydney.

It is a worrying scenario so close to a World Cup with four of the bowlers in the squad injured, although Stuart Broad believes the respite from a demanding tour of Australia, which has entered its final week, may help ensure a clean bill of heath come England’s first World Cup game against Holland in Nagpur on February 21.

Broad has been sidelined for the past eight weeks after suffering the injury while bowling in the second Ashes Test in Adelaide.

He said: “The injuries are pretty minor so I don’t think that is going to affect any balance to the World Cup squad or anything like that, but obviously it is a little bit frustrating in this series to have lost as many players as we have.

“It’s been hard to find the right balance that we will go into the World Cup with. You can’t do anything about injuries in sport – that’s just the way it happens.”

While England were storming to their historic Ashes success Broad was instead confined to the first stages of his rehabilitation in the cold of an English winter. It is a situation had accepted as a disappointing part of sport, and he returned to the squad without a hint of resentment.

“I’m an England fan at the end of the day. It was great to see the lads perform so well in the Ashes,” he said.

“It was difficult because it was freezing snow and cold and obviously I was disappointed to miss out on those celebrations and the achievements but I still feel a part of the team.

“I trained very hard at home, I only had a couple of days off in that whole period.

“I didn’t see a bat or a ball so it’s been nice to get back in the sunshine, have a bit of a hit and see the lads in a performance environment.”

Broad is confident he will be fit to return for England before the start of the World Cup after revealing he is ahead of schedule in his recovery from a stomach injury.

The 24-year-old missed England’s Ashes success after he was forced to return home before Christmas but, after returning to Australia to step up his recovery last week, the right-armer is hopeful he will be fit to return in England’s first World Cup warm-up game against Canada in Dhaka on February 16.

“My recovery is going very well, I’m probably a little bit ahead of schedule,” he said.

‘‘Hopefully, by the end of this Australian tour I will have come off near to a full run-up. My aim is to try and play the first warm-up game of the World Cup which is still two-and-a-half to three weeks away. I’m hopeful for that.”