Yorkshire are hopeful that fast bowler Jack Brooks will make a swift recovery from his broken left thumb and return to action sooner than the suggested six weeks.

The new signing from Northamptonshire, aged 28, suffered the break in a fielding accident during Friday’s final day of the LV= County Championship draw against Somerset at Headingley, in which he took four second-innings wickets.

The break was confirmed during yesterday’s heavy Yorkshire Bank 40 defeat to the same opponents at Headingley when the hosts could not get close to a victory target of 339.

Brooks, who is Yorkshire’s leading County Championship wicket-taker with 15 from three matches, could miss as many as five Championship and six 40-over fixtures, starting with Wednesday’s four-day clash with champions Warwickshire at Edgbaston.

Brooks sees a specialist on Monday and he could have surgery on Tuesday.

Yorkshire director of professional cricket Martyn Moxon said: “It’s a big blow to Jack and us.

“Hopefully he might be fit a little bit quicker though. We’ll just have to see what the specialist says.

“He’s a good character and is popular within the dressing room. We were just starting to see the best of him.”

Yorkshire, who won the toss yesterday, conceded 338-5 against Somerset before replying with 207 all out in 30 overs.

England one-day wicketkeeper Jos Buttler was the star of Somerset’s massive total – the highest ever in a 40-over match at Headingley – with a blistering 89 off 51 balls, including 10 fours and four sixes.

James Hildreth top-scored with 96 not out off 84 deliveries, while opener Peter Trego smashed 58 off 33.

Buttler’s innings was a stunning mixture of power and finesse. He hit strongly down the ground and over the off-side, as well as successfully employing a number of his trademark scoops over the wicketkeeper’s head.

Moin Ashraf returned figures of 1-80 from eight overs and Ryan Sidebottom 2-77.

Yorkshire faced with a near impossible task when they started their chase.

They were not too far off the required run-rate of 8.4 per over in the first 11 as they totted up 84 but were hamstrung by the loss of three wickets.

Gary Ballance top-scored with 60, while Alfonso Thomas took four wickets for Somerset.

After an opening-day defeat to Glamorgan, the White Rose county’s chances of qualifying for the semi-finals are already slim even though they have ten matches still to play.

Moxon said: “We can probably only afford to lose one more.”