Toe injury forces Tendulkar out of tour and extends his century wait

Instead Tendulkar discovered in his meeting with a London surgeon that he will play no part in the remaining four matches, having been prescribed at least a month’s rest after the recurrence of an old injury to his right big toe.

The 38-year-old therefore becomes the eighth member of a touring party – which arrived two months ago as the No 1 Test team and World Cup-winners – to leave early because of injury.

Tendulkar himself had high hopes of becoming the first man to post 100 international hundreds. But the nearest he came was his second-innings 91 in the fourth Test at The Oval – ended when Yorkshire’s Tim Bresnan dismissed him lbw – and his wait will go on at least until India face England in Hyderabad in the first of five one-day internationals in October.

Tendulkar may yet return to England to help contest the inaugural World Test Championship in 2013 – but that is dependent on his own fitness, India’s retention of a place in the top four nations and confirmation of the event itself. After that, a Test tour in 2014 would be his next chance – at the age of 41.

It fell to India opener Parthiv Patel and team manager Shivlal Yadav to publicly confirm Tendulkar’s absence yesterday.

“I’ve been told he’s been ruled out of the series,” said the former.

Yadav added: “It’s four to six weeks. So we know he’s not there for this series.”

India have responded to Tendulkar’s unavailability by calling up S Badrinath, batsman Manoj Tiwary is expected to arrive today and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja soon afterwards.