Yorkshire’s Azeem Rafiq has been ruled out of action for six weeks with a right knee injury.

The 22-year-old off-spinner could miss as many as five LV= County Championship matches, including Wednesday’s trip to Durham, with a problem that has been troubling him during the early stages of the season.

But it opens the door for Bradford leg-spinner Adil Rashid to return to the fold as the senior slow bowler following a stop-start two seasons.

Rashid will be part of a 12-man squad confirmed by Yorkshire today for the Riverside encounter and will play as long as coach Jason Gillespie and captain Andrew Gale do not assess the pitch tomorrow afternoon and decide to go in with five seam bowlers.

Rafiq took 26 wickets in ten Championship matches last season, having replaced Rashid in the side.

“Rafa is a seriously good young player and he was an important part of our team last year,” said team-mate Phil Jaques.

“But Adil will come into the squad in some great form.

“He scored a hundred in the practice match against Lancashire last week and he has been bowling the house down.

“He has bowled really well all winter. If he keeps doing those things right, there is no reason why he won’t be a big part of the side as well.”

Rashid is set to play his 100th first-class match and is just four wickets shy of the 300-mark.

It will be the perfect opportunity for him to put a difficult two seasons behind him, which has seen him lose his place to Rafiq, drop off the England radar and even conduct an interview about potentially leaving the county.

The 25-year-old’s ability with ball and bat has never been questioned, and Gillespie has revealed that discussions have taken place about Rashid playing for the county as a top-six batsman in Championship cricket.

He scored a flamboyant century in last week’s three-day friendly against Lancashire and Gillespie said: “We’ve spoken to Rash about that. We’ve told him not to just see himself getting into the side as a spin bowler.

“We are certainly looking at him as a top-six option.

“Before the first game he came under serious consideration to bat in the top six and his name has not been ruled out of that at all because we all saw how he batted (against Lancashire).”

Yorkshire will welcome back England duo Joe Root and Tim Bresnan back into their squad against Durham.