Darcie Brown has been ruled out of the entire Weber Women's Big Bash League season. Cricket Australia confirmed it on Monday. ABC reported the announcement. cricket.com.au published the statement. This is not a retirement from the national side and not a ruling on the T20 Champions Trophy.

The 23-year-old Adelaide Strikers quick came home from the Australia A tour of India with a disc injury. She played two T20s and a one-dayer, including 3 for 39 in Mohali. The injury kept her out of Australia's ODIs against Bangladesh. CA has not published a detailed diagnosis.

The statement says that after a period of rest the injury has not recovered enough for Brown to resume training. That is why she will not be fit in time for the WBBL season, which ends on 5 December. Last month there was hope she would catch the second half. Today CA has closed the whole tournament.

Strikers coach Luke Williams said she will be missed on the field but remains a huge part of the squad: experience, professionalism, leadership. She will support younger players. That is a place in the group, not a comeback announced.

Brown was left out of this year's T20 World Cup for tactical reasons, not because of her back, Cricinfo notes: the hierarchy judged that pace would not be needed in England. Missing a WBBL makes the road to February's T20 Champions Trophy harder. National selector Shawn Flegler said last month that even if the injury kept her out of the WBBL, she would still be in contention. Today's statement does not cut her from that and does not confirm her.

The Strikers will look for pace from Eleanor Larosa, beside Megan Schutt and Tahlia McGrath. Anyone writing that Brown has retired from cricket, been cut by Australia or already missed the Champions Trophy is writing past a WBBL-season announcement.

Image: DXR, Adelaide Oval, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; the ground, not the diagnosis.

Sources consulted: Darcie Brown out of WBBL season with back injury - ABC News; Brown ruled out of WBBL|12 with back injury - cricket.com.au.