The setback means Broad, who suffered the injury during England's first Test defeat to Sri Lanka, will therefore have to wait before making his Indian Premier League debut.

The 25-year-old bowling all-rounder missed the first year of a three-year contract with the Kings XI Punjab due to injury and was unavailable when this season's competition began on April 4.

While Twenty20 experience in the sub-continent would be ideal for England's short-form skipper ahead of the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka later this year, England are unwilling to gamble with Broad's longer term fitness.

The Nottinghamshire man's recovery period will extend until the end of the month, with the ECB announcing on Tuesday: "Broad will be assessed regularly over the coming weeks with a view to returning to cricket with Nottinghamshire in early May."

The injury to his right calf followed a sprain to his other ankle earlier in the tour, the latest in a concerning sequence of fitness problems for Broad, who left the 2010/11 Ashes after two Tests due to a stomach muscle problem that went on to keep him out of the World Cup.

He then suffered a shoulder injury that prevented him from captaining the side in two Twenty20 matches against West Indies in September and ruled him out of the limited-overs series in India that followed.