Steven Finn’s Ashes tour has got off to an inauspicious start after the seamer suffered a knee injury.

The Watford-born paceman is set to undergo a scan on the injury, which he picked up while batting in the nets, today and will miss the the tour opener against a West Australian XI tomorrow.

He joins Moeen Ali, who is struggling with a side strain in the treatment room, but neither injury is considered to be tour-ending at this stage.

The tour sees Finn return to the country where he experienced a testing time during the 2013/14 Ashes.

The 28-year-old bristles at mentions of his last Ashes tour but believes the experience helped him realise his strengths as a bowler.

England descended to a miserable 5-0 series whitewash, of course, amid much vain soul-searching and then a raft of recriminations which saw the eventual axing of Kevin Pietersen and also the end of Andy Flower’s era as coach.

Of all those with good reason to rue events, however, Finn cut perhaps the most unfortunate figure.

His loss of form with the ball meant he played no part in any of the Tests and then - worst of all - was dispatched from the following one-day international campaign, with white-ball coach Ashley Giles describing him as “not selectable”.

The seamer, drafted into this winter’s squad only after Ben Stokes’ arrest on suspicion of causing actual bodily harm rendered him unavailable, understandably would prefer to forget his historical low point.

Finn proved there is fire in his belly too when he was reminded, just before the first net session of England’s nascent campaign in Perth, of the events of 2013/14.

“I’m a lot older now and I’m getting pretty bored and sick of talking about it,” said the 28-year-old.

“I’ve played in an Ashes series (since), got man-of-the-match in an Ashes Test, won an Ashes series, played down here since then - so I think any psychological scars that people wanted to talk about I’ve pretty well proved there’s nothing there.

“It happened. Everyone has peaks and troughs in their career.

“Maybe it wasn’t an ideal circumstance for it to happen. But it was good for me in my career, because I went back and realised what made me a good bowler.”

He did not return to Test cricket until July 2015, when his eight-wicket match haul helped England beat Australia at Edgbaston - and he has gone on to claim 35 of his 125 victims to date since his last vexed tour down under.

If he wants to focus on the better days, and set aside the others, he therefore has some handy material.

“It’s easy to be caught up in the negative ones, but I’ve had a lot of positive experiences over here - at all the grounds,” he said.

“Last time, when I was down here in 2013/14, I understand where I went wrong.I was searching for things that weren’t actually there.”