One of the most hotly anticipated showdowns of the 2026 Commonwealth Games has been unceremoniously called off with the news England's Matt Richardson will not ride in the track cycling.

The sprint champion who represented Australia before defecting to the country of his birth following the Paris Olympics in 2024 has been ruled out by injury, Team England announced.

Richardson was racing in Japan and had been set to arrive in Scotland just before the track cycling program in Glasgow gets underway on Thursday.

He sustained an undisclosed injury after taking a nasty fall while riding in the Keirin World Series in Tachigawa.

"We wish him a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing him back on the track soon," the English team said.

Richardson was set to compete in the men's individual and team sprints in Glasgow, setting up a high-profile showdown with his former Australian teammates.

"It's definitely weird seeing him in GB kit," Australian sprinter Leigh Hoffman said before the withdrawal was announced.

"At the time it just came out of nowhere, we'd just finished the [Olympic] Games, brought a few medals back for Australia and then he went on holiday and never came back.

"I'm not really going to be sad about it or anything, I'm just going to focus on riding my bike and I think he does the same as well."

The Aussies generally played down the match-up earlier at the Games.

"I'm excited to beat everyone in the world, he's just another domino to fall, hopefully," said Hoffman, who won 2022 Commonwealth Games gold and 2024 Olympic bronze in the team sprint with Richardson.

"The Australia-England rivalry goes back very far with the Ashes and all our other sports. It's always Australia vs England, [but] for the Commonwealth Games, we've got some really stacked riders.

"Azizul Awang from Malaysia, who's come in in great form; Trinidad and Tobago, Nicholas Paul — there's a lot of great riders.

"But the fans are definitely looking forward to an Australia-England match-up."

Hoffman admitted to being hurt by Richardson's defection after years riding together.

"We'd never experienced something like that," Hoffman said.

"You grow up racing with someone and you think you're both Aussies and then he's not. That's life."

On the way out the door, Richardson fired shots at the AusCycling set-up — comparing riding in Australia vs England to attending a normal high school vs Hogwarts — a quote Hoffman chuckled about "biting [Richards] in the arse".