Former captain Angelo Mathews was on Tuesday called up to the Sri Lanka squad at the ICC World Cup to replace the injured Matheesha Pathirana, the sport's world body said.

Mathews, who has played 221 ODIs, has been approved as a replacement by the event technical committee ahead of the team's key match against defending champions England on Thursday.

"Pathirana failed to recover from a shoulder injury sustained during a warm-up match and was subsequently ruled out of the tournament," the International Cricket Council (ICC) said in a statement.

Former champions Sri Lanka have won just one of their four matches at the World Cup and languish in ninth spot in the 10-team table just ahead of bottom-placed England.