World Cup Qualifier 2023: West Indies' Yannic Cariah suffers nasal fracture following training injury

Caribbean all-rounder Yannic Cariah was on the receiving end of an unfortunate injury ahead of Windies' World Cup Qualifiers after he was struck in the face during training. Cariah suffered a nasal fracture due to the impact, and his injury will be reassessed while remaining in Zimbabwe for the Qualifiers.

Yannic Cariah has been in terrific form of late for the national side and is expected to be on the sidelines for several days following his unfortunate injury setback. The 30-year-old made his international debut against New Zealand last year and also featured in the team for two T20Is against Australia in the lead-up to the T20 World Cup. 

Although he has just nine wickets to his name in eight ODI appearances for the Windies, the leggie scalped a combined eight wickets in his last two outings for the national team. A four-for against Scotland in Windies' first warm-up match helped the side to a routine victory. The senior cricketer followed it up with another four-wicket haul against UAE in the last outing, as the Men in Purple ran riot in their final warm-up fixture.

Yannic Cariah was struck in the face today in training and suffered a nasal fracture. He will remain with the West Indies team in Zimbabwe and be reassessed in a few days. WI wish him a speedy recovery and look forward to welcoming him back soon #MenInMaroon pic.twitter.com/tNWkn1r5dr

— Windies Cricket (@windiescricket) June 17, 2023

West Indies face an uphill battle for a World Cup spot

While Cariah's absence will be a big miss for the West Indies, they would like to continue their winning momentum when they take on the USA in their campaign opener on June 18. They will square off against Nepal, Zimbabwe and the Netherlands, who are also part of the same group. Even though they are one of the favourites to seal one of the two remaining spots for the main event hosted in India later this year, they won't be taking any team lightly in the Qualifiers.