• Australia v England, The Ashes

Trott out of Ashes with stress-related illness

Jonathan Trott has been ruled out of the remainder of the Ashes tour because of what England team director Andy Flower described as a "stress-related problem".

Flower said Trott had been suffering from the condition for a while but until recently had been coping with it well. "He needs time away from this environment," he added.

England team management have been aware for some time that Trott was not feeling his best, and the Flower and ECB managing director Hugh Morris spoke to him during the Brisbane Test, after which time the decision was made. England are not ruling out Trott's return to international cricket at a later date, as he is known to have battled other bouts of stress during a Test career that began with a century against Australia at the Oval in 2009.

"I don't feel it is right that I'm playing knowing that I'm not 100% and I cannot currently operate at the level I have done in the past," said Trott. "My priority now is to take a break from cricket so that I can focus on my recovery. I want to wish my team-mates all the very best for the remainder of the tour."

Morris said: "Jonathan is an incredibly talented cricketer who has proven himself time and again for England. The cricket side of things is unimportant now. All that matters is that Jonathan is given the time, support and space he needs to recover."

David Warner described Trott's second-innings dismissal by Mitchell Johnson at Brisbane as "pretty poor and pretty weak". Alastair Cook said he thought Warner's comment "was pretty disrespectful to any professional cricketer really".

The decision is understood to have nothing to do with the comments delivered by Warner during the Test, a point Flower made in his press conference although the England team director was highly critical of Warner's remarks.

"That would be inaccurate," Flower said when asked about any links between Warner's comments and Trott's departure. "We've been on tour for about a month and he's had ups and downs through that month and it's not directly related.

"I would also say that I also think players commenting about fellow professionals in the media is disrespectful. On this occasion he has got that terribly wrong. I think we set different standards to that, and one of the reasons we don't like commenting on opposition players is that we don't know what's going on in their dressing room and private lives."

Under the management of Duncan Fletcher and more recently Flower, England have cultivated a highly professional, motivated and taut team environment that has reaped some outstanding on-field results, including the retention of the Ashes through three consecutive series, temporary ownership of the world No. 1 Test ranking and victory in the 2010 World T20 in the Caribbean.

However, it has taken a toll on cricketers at times across the era, despite a large back-room staff covering many areas of a cricketer's physical and mental well-being. Trott is the third England cricketer to depart a tour with a stress-related illness in recent years. Opener Marcus Trescothick left the 2005-06 India tour and the 2006-07 Ashes tour of Australia before the first Test in Brisbane, while the left-arm spinner Michael Yardy flew home from the 2011 World Cup. Neither cricketer has played for England again.

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