England star played in the Ashes with a broken rib

England fast bowler Jimmy Anderson has a better excuse than most of his teammates for his poor performance during the Ashes – he played the majority of the series with a broken rib.

The Daily Mail has reported Anderson suffered the injury when he was struck by a ball from Peter Siddle when batting during the second Test in Adelaide.

Despite the injury, Anderson played the final three Tests of the series as England slid to a humiliating 5-0 defeat.

"It was suspected that it was broken straight away but it wasn’t confirmed until ahead of the fourth Test in Melbourne when it was decided to get an X-ray done," an England source told The Daily Mail.

"There's nothing you can do to treat broken ribs anyway, so it was a case of just getting on with things."

The injury has prevented Anderson bowling a ball in the six weeks since returning to the UK from Australia.

It goes some way to explaining Anderson’s pathetic performance in Australia, where he claimed a modest 14 wickets at 43.94 runs apiece.