Brett Lee is increasingly unlikely to play in next week's third npower Ashes Test at Edgbaston after being ruled out of Australia's tour match against Northamptonshire.
Brett Lee is increasingly unlikely to play in next week's third npower Ashes Test at Edgbaston after being ruled out of Australia's tour match against Northamptonshire.
Lee, their pace spearhead, has been out of the equation so far in this summer's series since injuring his side in Australia's final warm-up match against the England Lions at Worcester at the start of this month.
The problem has steadfastly refused to clear up, and it was no surprise to see Lee restricted to peripheral stretching and jogging exercises at the County Ground yesterday morning while his team-mates prepared in earnest in the nets to face their hosts in a three-day match starting today.
Mike Hussey, standing in as captain against his old county for the rested Ricky Ponting, later confirmed at a press conference that Lee will not be playing.
While not being immediately ruled out of the Test, the consensus is that there is little chance of him being risked next week, unless in an emergency.
In the 32-year-old pace bowler's absence in the first two Tests, Australia dominated an opening draw in Cardiff and then lost at Lord's last week. One of their main worries has been the form of Lee's strike-bowling partner, Mitchell Johnson, who will play against Northamptonshire in the hope of finding his range in time to help Australia battle back into the five-match series in Birmingham.
England have their own injury situation to consider and Andy Flower, their coach, reiterated yesterday that Andrew Flintoff, their talismanic bowler, will play at Edgbaston only if the player, and the selectors, are 100% convinced he can last the full five days of the Test at full power.
Flintoff, whose five-wicket haul at Lord's earned him the man-of-the-match award, said he was committed to getting through the entire campaign before retiring from Test cricket only last week. He says he will play through the pain, but neither he nor the management will put the good of the team in jeopardy.
"I don't think those sort of decisions take an incredible amount of strength," said Flower. "If guys are fit enough to get through and contribute to winning Test matches then they'll be selected.
"If they're not it's not a tough decision to make, you just don't select him."
Meanwhile, one of the UK's leading orthopaedic surgeons fears Kevin Pietersen could miss much more than the remainder of the Ashes.
England's leading batsman was ruled out of the remaining three Tests after undergoing surgery on an inflamed Achilles tendon.
The 29-year-old is expected to be out of action until September but Simon Moyes, who works out of the Wellington Hospital in London, claims the prognosis could be worse.
"Pietersen has a serious problem with his Achilles tendon known as chronic tendinopathy, which hasn't responded to the usual measures of physiotherapy and injections.
"Fewer than 5% of patients end up needing surgery for this condition and therefore he is most unfortunate. The surgery to the tendon is not always predictable.
"Although a surgeon from Sweden, with a special interest in this condition, has been flown in to deal with the injury, I believe it will be a minimum of three months before he is fully recovered.
"Even then, there is still a risk that the surgery may not work."
