Sussex's hopes of bouncing straight back to division one of the County Championship have been dealt an early blow with England star Chris Jordan ruled out of their opening two games.

Jordan aggravated a persistent elbow injury during the World Twenty20 in India where he helped England reach the final before losing in agonising fashion to West Indies on Sunday.

The all-rounder is due to have an injection to help improve the problem after flying home from India meaning he will not be available for the opening match in division two at Northamptonshire on Sunday and the home game against Essex the following weekend.

Sussex then have a break of a week before Leicestershire come to Hove on May 1 and head coach Mark Davis is confident Jordan will be in contention for that match.

Davis said: “CJ has had a problem for a while with tendonitis in his elbow and that is why he was bowling with strapping in India. He’s got to have a jab in the elbow and that will need to settle down a bit before he starts bowling again.

“He will also need to start bowling with a red ball again in the nets before playing a game so realistically we are planning to have him available for the home game against Leicester and then Derbyshire away.

“It’s a shame but I was planning for him to be definitely out for the first game anyway. I’ve been talking to England a lot over the winter and I always thought he might miss the first two games so we just have to accept it.

“After that England choose their Test squad so we will see what happens then.”

Jordan capped a fine tournament in India with a nerveless penultimate over in the final against West Indies to make England strong favourites to lift the title only for Carlos Brathwaite to smash Ben Stokes for four consecutive sixes.

Sussex skipper Luke Wright – who won the title with England in 2010 – admits Jordan will be hurting at the moment but believes the experience of coming so close will make him an even stronger player.

Wright said: “I watched the final and was gutted for CJ and the rest of the lads. To come so close and miss out the way they did was tough but I think England can be proud of what they achieved in India as not many people gave them a chance before the tournament.

“It will probably hit him over next few days but he is a strong character. You could see through the tournament how much his death bowling has improved to the point where he is one of the top bowlers in that format now so it is just a shame he didn’t finish on the winning side.”