Australian fast bowler James Pattinson has been declared unfit for the Ashes on the morning of Wednesday (October 4). Following another injury, Pattinson has to sit out and watch his team playing for the urn.
Cricket Australia (CA) has made it clear that the latest stress fracture in his lower back forced them to give Pattinson more rest. CA’s sports science manager Alex Kountouris confirmed this news while stating, “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 re-aggravate his previous lower back stress fracture.”
Kountouris cleared clouds over his availability for Ashes and further added, “Whilst this is very disappointing that James has re-aggravated 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 of current re-aggravation but we are hopeful that we can put strategies in place to help manage this when James returns to playing,” he said.
Meanwhile, the-27-year-old looked disappointed following this announcement and 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.”
Pattinson was in good touch during his county stint in England and was expected to feature in the Ashes squad. Despite his absence, Australian pace battery looks well-oiled as Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazelwood are set to return from injury. Patrick Cummins, who left India after ODI series for Ashes preparations, is expected to make his Ashes debut in this summer.
The battle for the urn will go underway from November 23 in Brisbane.
