Australian coach Andrew McDonald has provided reassuring updates on the fitness of fast bowlers Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, clarifying the latter had not been ruled out of the Ashes series.
Cummins missed the first Test against England in Perth due to a lower back issue that has plagued him since returning from the Caribbean in July, while Hazlewood sustained a hamstring injury during a recent Sheffield Shield match at the SCG.
Speaking to reporters on Monday morning, McDonald revealed that Australia would have a better understanding of Cummins’ availability for the second Test in Brisbane after his training session in Sydney on Tuesday.
“We’ll get more information tomorrow on what that looks like,” McDonald said of Cummins.
“Once we see him, we’ll be able to then join the dots as to what that potentially looks like.”
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Cummins bowled twice while training with the Australian squad in Perth last week, promising signs ahead of the pink-ball Test at the Gabba.
“It looked like a player that was nearing the completion of his rehabilitation,” McDonald continued.
“The intensity was there, the ball speed was there, so there’s a lot of positives, but now it’s just really building that resilience there within the soft tissue and making sure we’re not putting him in harm’s way in terms of accelerating it too much.
“It will be a genuine discussion leading into (the Brisbane) Test match, and that may be one that eventuates late for us.
“A little bit to work through, but it’s nearing completion, which is really really positive.”
Meanwhile, McDonald denied reports that Hazlewood would not be available for the entire Ashes campaign, declaring “that’s not the information I have”.
“I don’t know where that speculation began, but he’s working through the first week of his rehab,” he said of Hazlewood.
”Once he gets further down the track and we start to have some rough timelines, then we’ll be in a position to communicate that.
“I know that he’ll be available at some point during the series and once again we’re not going to put our medical team into a scenario where we identify a game.
“We’ve got a little bit of that early rehab to go through to formulate where he might plug into the series, but we expect him to take some part in the series.”
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Elsewhere, McDonald has flagged the possibility that Usman Khawaja’s back injury may have been “more serious” than initially expected, with team medics to assess the veteran opener’s fitness ahead of the Brisbane Test.
During the series opener in Perth, Khawaja left the field due to back spasms that worsened as the match progressed. He wasn’t permitted to open the batting on day one because he spent too much time off the field, while he didn’t bat in the second innings, opening the door for centurion Travis Head to face the new ball in his absence.
McDonald declared that Khawaja’s availability for the pink-ball Gabba Test, which gets underway on December 4, would be determined in the “next few days”.
“Unfortunately that back spasm took its toll in the first innings and got worse into day two,” he said.
“It’s difficult once your back starts spasming to get it under control, so unfortunate for him, but it opened up the opportunity for Head to go up there and do what he did.
“We’ll just work through his fitness. I’m not sure where he’s at medically. There were discussions around further investigation into whether it was more serious than what we first anticipated, so we’ll work through that.
“We get to camp (in Brisbane) in six days time, so it’s a long way out. A lot of information to gather between now and then, and hopefully Usman’s fit and available for selection.”
He added: “He’s in the hands of the medical team at the moment. My gut feel is that it should be okay, but as I said, we’ll wait for that information to present.”
Australia won the first Test at Perth Stadium by eight wickets to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.
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