Kent injury troubles mount as County Championship relegation battle approaches climax

Both Sam Billings and Matt Milnes are "certainly unlikely" to be fit for Kent's next red-ball fixture against Hamsphire in almost a fortnight's time

A flurry of injuries have compounded Kent's descent into a relegation battle after head coach Matt Walker admitted that neither Sam Billings nor Matt Milnes were likely to be fit for the club's next County Championship match.

After the finishing touches were put to a resounding defeat by Essex on Thursday, the Royal London Cup finalists don't play again in red-ball cricket until the Monday following the final at Trent Bridge, where they will take on Lancashire.

When that time comes, they are set to be without Billings, the wicketkeeper-captain, and Milnes, the highly regarded seamer, both of whom suffered issues during the first half of the game at Canterbury. Walker called them "certainly unlikely for the next game". With just two matches left in their County Championship campaign, they are only narrowly ahead of Warwickshire and Somerset, who both have a game in hand.

Milnes, who broke down with a back problem on the second day of the innings defeat, might well have performed his last act as a Kent player, with the 28-year-old set to join Yorkshire at the end of the season.

In Billings' case, his groin issue meant that he batted down the order in both innings and handed the wicketkeeping gloves to Ollie Robinson, who was playing solely as an opening batter and is also expected to depart in the off-season. Kent also lost Nathan Gilchrist to injury on the morning ahead of the game, while George Linde, Marcus O'Riordan and Tawanda Muyeye are all injury absentees.

^{Sam Billings injured his groin on the first day (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)}

"As far as overseas players go, we could do with a body in the camp for the next game," Walker told the ECB Reporters' Network. "But apart from that, everybody is available and we'll have a big think after the Royal London final about what we need to do. Whoever the XI is, we've got to go in there believing we can win that game.

"We've got the personnel but it's about more than that, it's about delivering what's required and whoever is it that final XI hopefully will be absolutely on board for what we need for those four days."

Kent had already announced ahead of the game that the squad for the 50-over final would be made up of players involved up to this point, meaning that neither Billings nor Milnes – both of whom were on Hundred duty through August – would have been involved in any case.

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