Stuart Broad is likely to miss England’s one-day series against India that follows the fifth Test at The Oval, and another block of 50-over matches in Sri Lanka this winter, in an effort to sort out his troublesome right knee in time for the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand early next year.

England now expect Broad and his new-ball partner Jimmy Anderson to come through the whole series against India, after earlier concerns that they may struggle to handle the physical demands of five Tests in the space of 42 days.

Sources close to Broad have told Mail Online, part of the newspaper group for whom he writes a column, that it is now “highly probable” he will have an operation on his knee at the end of the Test series.

The recovery time is said to be between three and four months, which would leave him with another two months before England launch their World Cup campaign against Australia on 15 February. They play in a triangular tournament in Australia also involving India before that, giving Broad a perfect opportunity to ease himself back.

England will not name their squad for the one-day series against India until the Test series has been completed but it is expected to include a number of new faces, almost certainly including Alex Hales, the Nottinghamshire opener who struck a century for the Lions against Sri Lanka A in Taunton on Wednesday.

Several other members of that Lions team, including Hales’s opening partner James Vince and the explosive Surrey batsman Jason Roy, could come into contention.