Tom Curran ruled out for remainder of BBL 11

The Sydney Sixers allrounder will return to the UK immediately due to a "troublesome hotspot in his back"

Sydney Sixers will be without Tom Curran for the remainder of their Big Bash League title defence.

The England allrounder is suffering from a troublesome hotspot on his back and will return to the UK immediately for rehabilitation.

Curran had played in all four of the Sixers matches in BBL 11, having missed the whole of last season due to Covid-19 travel restrictions.

He joins an extensive injury list that already includes Ben Manenti (neck) and Stephen O'Keefe (calf), who is set to miss the clash with Adelaide Strikers on Tuesday (December 21).

Sixers will look into injury replacements for those sidelined in the coming days.

^{Ben Mananti is also on the casualty list for the Sixers (Steve Bell/Getty Images)}

"We pride ourselves on being a club and a team that embraces challenges but to lose players of the calibre of Tom and Ben, and to have SOK on the sidelines, would be a challenge for any team and those guys aren’t simply replaced," captain Moises Henriques said.

"On and off the field, all three of those guys play a massive role for us and their presence around the team and skills on the field will be missed by everybody in the group.

"But for us, we always look to have 18-match ready players in our squad and we see it as an opportunity for others within our group.

"There are guys like Lloyd Pope and Mickey Edwards who really deserve an opportunity, but due to the strength of our list haven’t been able to get as many chances as they deserve, so it will be a great little period for those guys to have a run of games.

"We also saw Ben Dwarshuis return from injury this week, Jackson Bird isn’t too far away and Sean Abbott is back after the birth of his daughter, so there is no need to panic."