SYDNEY: Captain Michael Clarke still has a chance of leading Australia in the first Test against India but will not play in next week’s final lead-up game, team medical staff said on Thursday.

Clarke has been in doubt to face India in next month’s Test series opener in Brisbane since injuring his troublesome left hamstring while batting during last Friday’s One-day International win over South Africa in Perth.

Team physiotherapist Alex Kountouris said it was still unclear how long Clarke would be out of cricket.

However, he said it was ‘not that dramatic that he’s going to miss the whole summer’ and he was hoping the skipper would be able to lead Australia into the first Test, starting at the Gabba on Dec 4.

Clarke has been ruled out of playing in a four-day Sheffield Shield match next week, which will act as the final hit-out before the first Test.

“There comes a point where there’s no more healing to be done and waiting longer does not give any more benefit,” Kountouris told a media conference. “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.”

It is the third hamstring setback for Clarke, 33, since August, and he has already been ruled out of the remainder of the five-game ODI series against South Africa, where Australia took a 2-1 lead after a 73-run win in Canberra on Wednesday.

Kountouris said Clarke had suffered an acute flare-up of a degenerative back condition which was complicating the hamstring issue.

Asked how long he would be out of action with the latest injury, Kountouris said: “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. He needs to start running and start doing things before we make a decision on whether he’s OK to play.

“I’m still hopeful that he might be right for the first Test because that’s two weeks away.”

Australia play India in four Tests before turning their focus towards the Feb 14-March 29 50-over World Cup, which they are co-hosting with New Zealand.

Kountouris said Clarke was highly frustrated by the injury but was not at the stage where he needed to consider retirement because of the recurring injuries.

He also thought it unlikely that Cricket Australia would be forced to choose between Clarke playing against India or in the World Cup.

“Time is not the magic healer here,” Kountouris added. “There comes a point when there’s no more healing to be done, it doesn’t give you any more benefits. He could rest now for five months and the first time he comes back he could tear his hamstring again.”

Clarke’s leadership has been integral to the turnaround in Australia’s fortunes since the humiliating 2010-11 Ashes series and the World Cup that followed, where Ricky Ponting’s team went out in the quarter-finals.

Regarded as one of the most tactically astute captains in international cricket, Clarke has also led from the front with his batting and scored 13 centuries and 3,555 runs at an average of 57.33 in Tests since succeeding Ponting.

Test vice-captain Brad Haddin, who will stand in for Clarke if he is unfit, was training in the nets as Kountouris was speaking and the physio said he was approaching full fitness after damaging his shoulder.

“He’s pretty good,” he said. “We’re hopeful he’ll play Sheffield Shield next week.”

Former captain Allan Border has urged Clarke to quit limited-overs internationals after the World Cup.

Published in Dawn, November 21th, 2014