NEW DELHI (Reuters)
Top Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar will not play in the Test series starting inSri Lanka next week due to a hairline fracture in his right foot.

"Sachin is definitely not going for the Sri Lanka tour. He has been ruled out," Board of Control for Cricket in India secretary Jaywant Lele told Reuters by phone.

He said Tendulkar had informed them a bone scan taken on Friday had not shown any change to the first scan taken four weeks ago.

"The bone scan was repeated yesterday four weeks after the initial scan. The new scans have showed no signs of healing in the fracture of the big toe on the right foot. The pain also continues to be there," Tendulkar said in a letter to Lele.

"After consulting senior specialists it has been decided to consider other alternative treatment, which may include either a local injection or even surgery."

Tendulkar, who was named in the squad for the three-Test series starting in Galle on August 14, has been through three bone scans so far -- one on July 17, a second on Thursday evening followed by one on Friday.

He suffered the injury during the final phase of India's tour of Zimbabwe which ended last month and was subsequently ruled out of the one-day triangular tournament in Sri Lanka preceding the Test series.

"Tendulkar told us that he needs to consult some foot specialist abroad. His doctor, Ananth Joshi, is helping him to get in touch with a doctor in the United States or Britain," said Lele.

Tendulkar, who made his debut as a 15-year-old in the 1989-90 series in Pakistan, has rarely been troubled by injury although he suffered severe back spasms, which were largely attributed to continuous playing, two years ago.

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