Australia’s Pattinson ruled out of Ashes

Cricket365
October 4, 2017

Australia fast bowler James Pattinson has been ruled out of the Ashes series against England after Cricket Australia (CA) confirmed that he will take an indefinite break as he recovers from a reaggravation of his lower back stress fracture.

The 27-year-old Pattinson has had multiple injuries to his back throughout his career which has cut short his international appearances, which has meant he has only represented the Aussies in 17 Tests.

It looked as though the right-arm pacer was building up nicely for the end of year Ashes campaign as he completed a stint in English county cricket with Nottinghamshire but he was then withdrawn from Australia’s Test series in Bangladesh.

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CA’s head of sports science, Alex Kountouris, said: “Soon after returning from the UK, following the Champions Trophy and his county cricket contract, James presented with back pain.

“We made the decision to withdraw him from the tour of Bangladesh and monitor his pain.

“He returned to bowling after a period of rest and unfortunately he is still experiencing pain with bowling.

“During this time we have been monitoring him, including regular scans and recent imaging has confirmed that James has begun to reaggravate his previous lower back stress fracture.

“As such, he has discontinued bowling as part of his recovery which unfortunately means that he will be unavailable for the beginning of the Sheffield Shield and subsequently Ashes campaign.

“Whilst this is very disappointing that James has reaggravated this old injury, we are confident that he can recover from this and return to playing.

“However, James’ current injury is complex because his history of old stress fractures from his teenage years means there is one part of his spine that absorbs more force than it would normally do.

“This is the area the of current reaggravation but we are hopeful that we can put strategies in place to help manage this when James returns to playing,” said Kountouris.

Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood are both still out injured with Starc expected to play for New South Wales in the domestic 50-over game on Friday.

Pat Cummins and Jackson Bird are the other seamers that are likely to be included in Australia’s squad for the Ashes, which starts with the first Test in Brisbane on 23 November.

Speaking on his injury setback, Pattinson said he was disappointed.

He said: “Obviously I am extremely disappointed with this setback after just getting back into a good run of playing cricket.

“I’m especially disappointed to miss out on the possibility to play in a home Ashes Series.

“Over the next few weeks I will discuss all available options available to me with medical staff, to work out the best plan to prevent this from happening again.”

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