Mark Adair facing a race against time to be fit

The 24-year-old sustained an ankle injury during the tour of the West Indies in January. He had surgery in March to try and solve the problem, but it seems that he hasn’t made a full recovery.

Speaking on Friday, Ford said: “[The situation with Mark] is a mystery. We hoped that he would be 100 per cent and be firing on all cylinders when he got here. He’s still experiencing some discomfort and up until now he hasn’t been able to bowl at full intensity.

“The team doctor, who actually performed the surgery on him, is handling the situation and is doing his best to get him back operating at full intensity.”

He and star batsman Paul Stirling (calf niggle) both missed the intra-squad match on Wednesday, but Ford said that the latter was just a precautionary measure.

These three matches against England – which also begin the qualification process for the 2023 Cricket World Cup – are the only matches Ireland will play before the end of the year – following the postponement of the T20 World Cup which was due to start in October, much to the frustration of Ford.

“One fully understands why it (the postponement) happened,” said Ford. “Everybody in our group was really excited and was looking forward to the opportunity. We had done a lot of planning but that’ll have to be put on hold.

“Some of that is worrying but it’s out of our control. What we can control is how we go about our business in training and how we support each other. One of the strengths in our group is that there is a real family feel about it.”

“If you speak to any one of our players, they are desperate to play. There’s nothing like form in the middle; you can spend hours in the nets but it’s match time that really sharpens you up.”

“We have a number of exciting young players who are inexperienced. You can’t buy experience – that only comes by getting out there and playing. We’ve got to be honest and accept that the step up from club and interprovincial cricket in to international cricket is huge,” he added.

Ireland play their final warm-up match against the England Lions at the Ageas Bowl on Sunday before naming a final squad ahead of Thursday’s series opener.

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