Jofra Archer: Sussex chief executive Rob Andrew says county will do 'everything we can' for fast bowler

Jofra Archer has not played a first-class game since appearing for Sussex against Kent last May

Sussex chief executive Rob Andrew has said the club will do "absolutely everything we can" for Jofra Archer.

The 27-year-old was hoping to make a return from two elbow operations in the T20 Blast for Sussex, who begin their campaign against Glamorgan on Thursday.

But the paceman has now been ruled out for the entire summer and the autumn's T20 World Cup in Australia with what Andrew called a "historic back issue".

"Jofra's news is sad for his career," Andrew told BBC Radio Sussex.

"Especially having gone through the elbow situation. He said himself he was hoping to play in the Blast."

Archer has not played since July last year, in a T20 Blast game for Sussex against Kent at Canterbury.

He was badly missed over the winter as England exited the T20 World Cup in the semi-finals in November and were then crushed 4-0 in the Ashes.

"It's a recurrence of what appears to be an historic back issue," added Andrew.

"We will do absolutely everything we can for him, as we always have done right from when he first arrived.

"Between England and ourselves we'll make sure the right things are done and he's looked after.

"Hopefully we can get to the other side of this."

Andrew was speaking after day one of New Zealand's tour match at Hove was abandoned without a ball being bowled shortly after 14:00 BST because of bad weather, with 2,000 spectators expected to attend.

"We felt the ground should have been given a bit more time to try and improve," he said.

"Cricket does shoot itself in the foot sometimes and it does it quite a lot."