STEVE Harmison’s hopes of featuring in this summer’s Ashes series have been hit by a shin injury, which is to be checked amid fears that it could be a stress fracture.

The paceman suffered a similar injury in 2000, which kept him out for three months, and a repeat would rule him out of a possible Test recall against Australia.

Harmison missed yesterday’s Friends Provident Trophy tie at Headingley, where defeat ended what little chance Durham had of reaching the quarter-finals. He will definitely not play in the two remaining group games, and will not be risked in the Twenty20 Cup, which starts on May 25, unless the injury has cleared up.

He had previously been ever-present during Durham’s hectic schedule, but since taking four for 76 in the first innings of the opening championship match against Yorkshire he has added only four more wickets in five innings.

He admitted at Hove last week that he was struggling to recapture the rhythm which put him among the country’s leading wicket-takers last year.

Harmison spoke at the end of last season of how much it meant to him to play with his brother Ben in the Durham team which clinched the County Championship.

Ben, who opened the batting in the final two games, has not featured in the team this season.