England have been dealt a huge blow ahead of this summer's Ashes after it was revealed that Jofra Archer would miss the entire series.
The pace bowler has been plagued by injury issues since breaking into the England setup, but he had recently been making progress in his bid to earn a spot versus Australia.
Archer made a number of outings in one-day and T20 internationals before going on to represent Mumbai Indians in the IPL.
However, that stint was cut short due to a recurrence of an elbow injury, and it has since been confirmed that he has suffered another stress fracture which will sideline him in the long term.
On a more positive note for England, Jonny Bairstow returns to the fold for the first time since breaking his leg in August.
Bairstow had been enjoying a dream summer with the bat before suffering the injury while playing golf, but the 32-year-old has recently returned to action with Yorkshire.
In two County Championship fixtures, Bairstow has compiled scores of 36, 27, 20* and 0, and the hope is that further time in the middle will be beneficial ahead of the start of the Ashes in the middle of June.
Ben Foakes, who has scored 35 or more in four of his last five Test innings, has surprisingly been left out of the 15-man squad for the Test with Ireland, which starts on June 1, with Bairstow due to take the gloves.
Meanwhile, James Anderson is included despite it being revealed in recent days that he is suffering with a 'mild groin injury', and the veteran bowler remains a doubt for the first Test of the summer.
SQUAD IN FULL: Ben Stokes (captain) James Anderson, Jonny Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood body check tags ::
