Train conductors have called in sick more than 1,000 times in a month, according to a rail operator they are in dispute with.

An average of 83 services are being cancelled every day due to sickness of conductors, Southern Railway said.

The company - which operates services across the county - is involved in a dispute over the role of conductors and driver-only trains.

It took the unusual step of publishing figures which show its conductors called in sick 1,066 times in the last 32 working days.

According to Southern the rate of absence has almost doubled since the first conductors' strike on April 26.

Its data shows that in the two weeks prior to the first strike there was an average of 23 conductors off sick each day.

But since the strike that number has risen to 40, and increased to 45 in the last 10 days.

A spokesman for Southern said: "We would not usually release such information, but passengers deserve to know the reasons behind the unusually high level of train cancellations they are presently experiencing.

"For those conductors who are ill the company is offering all the support we are able to and working out how they can get back to work.

"But these figures show a remarkable and unprecedented level of sickness absence which commenced at the time of the first strike. We are presently looking into what steps can be taken to investigate this deterioration in the health of conductors across the south of England."