Clarke’s injury not as ‘dramatic’ as being reported

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Australia captain Michael Clarke's hamstring injuries will never not be a problem, but with careful management he'll be fine to play for most of the Australian summer, says physio Alex Kountouris.

Clarke was ruled out of the ODI series against South Africa after hurting his hamstring once again in the first match, and he's now at risk of not being ready for the first Test against India in Brisbane on 4 December.

But the team's physio says that rest is the key, and that Clarke will always have a problem of some kind, because of his age and the lower back injury that affects his hamstrings.

Kountouris said on Thursday: "It's is not that dramatic that he's going to miss the whole summer. There comes a point where there's no more healing to be done and waiting longer does not give any more benefit.

"The real risks for him are he's got a back injury, it puts a lot of pressure on his hamstrings, he's an older athlete and that's a risk factor. He's had multiple hamstring injuries on both legs. They're not risk factors we can get rid of."

The physio also said he couldn't put a time frame on Clarke's recovery, nor would he say yes or no regarding the skipper's readiness for the first Test:  "I can't put a figure on it right now.

"As he is right now, he hasn't started running, he hasn't started doing any of the functional things that we want him to do. He's not able to bat. So he's not ready to play at the moment.

"His next game of cricket is a grade game on the weekend and he's not available for that. There's a Shield game starting next Tuesday and he's not available for that. That's as far as we're looking.

"He needs to start running and start doing things before we make a decision on whether he's okay to play. I'm still hopeful that he might be right for the first Test because that's two weeks away."

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