How can England replace Jason Roy?

England's quest for another limited-overs title must continue without one of their best players.

Jason Roy has been ruled out of the remainder of the T20 World Cup after suffering a calf injury in the Super 12 defeat to South Africa on Saturday.

"I'm gutted to be ruled out of the World Cup. It is a bitter pill to swallow," he said. "I will be staying on to support the boys, and hopefully, we can go all the way and lift that trophy. It has been an unbelievable journey so far, and we have to continue expressing ourselves and concentrating on us.

"The rehab has already started, and even though I've torn my calf, I'm going to give myself the best chance of being ready for the T20 tour of the Caribbean at the start of next year."

It is a bitter blow with the 50-over world champions already without Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer and Sam Curran before the tournament and losing Tymal Mills during it.

It is especially damaging given Roy's form at the top order - before limping out last time out the Surrey man had amassed 123 runs in just five innings at an average of 30.75 and a strike-rate of 138.2.

Alongside Jos Buttler, Roy sets the tone for this aggressive England side with the job of filling his boots now a sizeable one.

James Vince, already on tour as a reserve, has been called up but the opening role is likely to instead go to one of those already in the side.

Jonny Bairstow opens alongside Roy in the 50-over format while Moeen Ali has long proved a dangerous top-order hitter and did so with great success in The Hundred in the summer.

Dawid Malan, recently deposed as the No 1 T20 batsman in the world, is another option to shift up from number three while Liam Livingstone could be another, hugely aggressive choice.

Roy has suffered injury at a major tournament before of course - he tore a hamstring in the group stages of the 2019 50-over World Cup group stage, missing defeats to Australia and Sri Lanka, before returning to bolster the side's run to the trophy.

Captain Eoin Morgan concedes his in-form opener will be tough to replace.

"He's unbelievably important," he said. "He's a guy that epitomises everything that we are about in the changing room and the way that we play.

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"You see how commanding he is at the top of the order, not only in T20 cricket but 50-over cricket as well. He's as close as we get to surmising how the changing room should play.

"We're gutted for Jase. For anybody to miss the latter stages of the tournament, particularly when it's been two guys in two games, that does hurt the mood (of the dressing room)."

England secured their place in the final four - where they will play New Zealand on Wednesday - despite falling to a 10-run defeat at Sharjah.

The result ended England's winning run but Morgan was clear that progression was all that mattered on the day.

"Some of the hardest matches of the tournament or tournaments that I've played in the past have been group stage games. It's very difficult to qualify," Morgan added.

"We're not going to be at our best every game but we do need to find ways to win. In the field we weren't as intense as we have been in previous games, just small things we didn't do as neatly as we would have liked.

"But a lot of teams finished having lost only one game and sides going through on net run rate really does show the strength within that particular group, so I'm very happy that we're through to the semi-final."

That semi-final will now have to be negotiated without one of their best. This England team under Morgan though are unlikely to shirk the challenge.