England will be without paceman Tim Bresnan for their forthcoming Test series against Pakistan because of injury, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) confirmed on Monday.

The 26-year-old paceman, who still has soreness in the elbow which was operated on in November, had already missed England’s opening three-day tour match against an ICC Combined XI which they won by three wickets in the United Arab Emirates on Monday.

Bresnan took 16 wickets in the three Tests he played against India at home last year — a series which lifted Captain Andrew Strauss’s men to number one in the Test rankings.

An ECB statement said Bresnan’s right elbow had “flared up” during his recent return to bowling following surgery to remove a bone fragment in November.