SUSSEX fast bowler Jason Lewry may miss the start of the new season after suffering another injury setback.

Lewry has had a second scan on the shoulder problem which forced him to return two weeks early from England A's tour of Zimbabwe and South Africa.

The problem first flared up last August and reoccured during fielding practice.

He sees Hove specialist Robin Turner for the results on Monday and may need keyhole surgery.

If the operation is done straight away Lewry could be out for as much as three months, ruling him out of Sussex's Championship games against Lancashire, Northants and Glamorgan as well as two fixtures in the new one-day National League competition.

Lewry said today: "The scans I had in Zimbabwe weren't correct and I had some more yesterday. I get the results on Monday and I'll discuss the situation with the specialist and Sussex.

"The worst case scenario would be six weeks of doing nothing and six weeks rehabilitation, but I may be able to put off the operation until the end of the season."

Aseries of setbacks restricted Lewry to just three matches for England A, but he did help them clinch the two-match unofficial Test series and took seven wickets in total.

He was also sidelined by fluid on the knee and then went down with e-coli food poisoning after eating infected meat.

"I was up all through the first night of the second Test and lost half a stone in three days. I still played on but the temperatures were about 40 degrees and it got very difficult," added Lewry.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.