England pace bowler Tymal Mills revealed his withdrawal from the Big Bash League was due to his two-year-old daughter suffering a stroke just before a flight to Australia.

The left-arm seamer, an unused squad member as England won the T20 World Cup in Australia last month, pulled out of a planned stint at Perth Scorchers with a “family emergency” cited as the reason.

Mills elaborated on Wednesday that he and his family were at the airport when his daughter fell ill earlier this month but the 30-year-old posted a photo on Instagram of them leaving hospital.

Alongside the image, he wrote: “Home for Christmas after the most horrible 11 days. As we were at the airport about to leave for Australia our daughter suffered what ended up being a stroke.

“She lost complete use of the left side of her body and we were told they couldn’t predict how much she would regain.

“Despite all of the challenges she faced our little girl has amazed everyone with her recovery to (the) point where we were discharged with her hopping and skipping out of the hospital.

“She has lots of rehab, medication and scans ahead but we are so grateful to be where we are right now.”

Mills played seven games as the Scorchers won last season’s title and was signed by the club in the inaugural player draft earlier this year.