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| March 23, 2007 | Friday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 3, 1428 |
Physio still unsure of Symonds’s return
BASSETERRE (St Kitts), March 22: Australia's explosive all-rounder Andrew Symonds is still not certain to play in his team's vital clash against South Africa on Saturday, according to physio Alex Kountouris.
“He (Symonds) is going alright. His batting is unrestricted, his bowling is unrestricted. Most parts of his fielding are unrestricted but we haven't actually cleared him to play,” Kountouris said after team practice on Wednesday.
The 31-year-old Symonds was included in the 15-man World Cup squad despite injuring his bicep during the tri-series in Australia last month.
Since arriving in the Caribbean Symonds has progressed towards full fitness in quick time, but Kountouris still believes some work needs to be done before deciding to play him in Australia's last Group A match on Saturday.
“There's still a couple more things that we want him to do until we reach that point and we've still got a couple more days to do it. We are just building up his throwing, but he's going okay.
“We still haven't met with the selectors and discussed it at this point.
So, I'd guess you'd have to ask Ricky (Ponting) about that.”
Kountouris hoped a final decision on Symonds would be reached by Friday.
“I haven't been given a deadline but usually we decide the day before the game. I will sit down with the selectors and see what they want to do – they would have had a good look at him in training the last couple of days.
“He's pretty much trained unrestricted, or with limited restriction, so they've had a good chance to look at him themselves.”
The physio said diving would not be a problem for the all-rounder.
“Landing on the shoulder is not what I'm really worried about, it's not the biggest problem. I've got no problem with him diving in the field. It just hasn't happened (at training) more by coincidence than anything else.
“He can throw 25-30 metres. It's also specific to where he fields as well. He'll be doing everything the team is doing. We're training the next three days and he'll be taking part in the next three sessions.
“Obviously, as part of his rehab he's got some extra things he has to do, some extra throwing and things like that, so he'll just do that on top of that.”
Kountouris praised the mind frame of Symonds, who wanted to play last week.
“Symonds has got a very positive attitude. He's not demanding (selection), but he's confident with what he can do, which is what you want, you want someone to be positive after coming back from a long-term injury.
“I just want to get him right and obviously I want it to be 100 percent.
“I'm realistic, he's had surgery not that long ago, so I'm just trying to get him to the highest possible level that I can, and let the others make the decision on what he can and can't do, and whether they want to play him or not.”—AFP
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