As the ICC T20 World Cup inches ever closer, Cricket West Indies is in close contact with the Indian Premier League franchise Kolkata Knight Riders as it relates to the health of mercurial all-rounder Andre Russell, who recently suffered a hamstring injury in their match against the Chennai Super Kings.

Russell injured himself while pulling off an athletic save on the midwicket boundary. Team mentor David Hussey said afterwards that Russell explained that he ‘felt something pop in his leg, his hamstring’ while making the save.

KKR captain Eoin Morgan said the player is being monitored day by day as the club continues to sweat on the health of the player.

Meanwhile, CWI’s CEO Johnny Grave revealed on Friday, that the West Indies is also keen to see the athlete return to full health what with the world cup set to bowl off on October 17 with the 2012 and 2016 champions scheduled to begin their defence on October 23.

“Our medical team is in touch with KKR,” Grave said on Friday evening. “He is having regular treatment by the KKR physio and will have scans to determine how quickly he can return. It’s too early to say when (he will recover).

Grave said in the event that Russell is unable to recover in time for the world cup, the CWI will turn to the reserves for a replacement. Jason Holder, Dwayne Bravo, Akeal Hosein and Sheldon Cottrell have been named among the four travelling reserves.

Holder is the most likely replacement for Russell given his ability with both bat and ball.

Russell’s injury is also having an impact on KKR as they lost their last game to the Punjab Kings by five wickets on Friday.

“In terms of the balance, when you take out a world class all-rounder like Russell, it’s always difficult to balance your side. I know we got home in Sharjah the other day, we just felt a batter short and in that circumstance we felt that we could play the extra batter,” said head coach Brendan McCullum.

“When you take one of your big players, who happens to be an all-rounder out, you’re always going to get the delicate balance of going either bowling strong or batting strong.”

The same could be said for the West Indies