MELBOURNE, Feb 4: Australia all-rounder Andrew Symonds faces a race against time to be fit for the World Cup after surgery on his right bicep, the team's physio said on Sunday.

Symonds ruptured the tendon on his bicep while batting in the tri-series match against England in Sydney on Friday, and surgeons had to reattach the tissue to the bone at the shoulder joint using a screw.

Although the surgery was deemed a success, Australian physio Alex Kountouris said it was too early to say whether the hard-hitting batsman and versatile bowler would be ready for the team's World Cup defence, which starts in the Caribbean next month.“It's going to be tough for the World Cup,” Kountouris told Australia's Channel Nine television station.

“They tend to take a little bit of time to recover but we are not really looking at that right now.”

“We just want to see how it goes over the next couple of weeks. There's no fixed time with any sort of surgery you do, so we are just going to look at it week by week.

“We're still aiming for him to be at the World Cup but we're still just looking at where he is going to be in the next one to two weeks.”

Symonds was one of Australia's key players when they retained the World Cup in South Africa four years ago, his ability to bowl off-spin and nagging medium pace allowing Ricky Ponting's side to pick four specialist bowlers.

Australia begin their World Cup defence against Scotland in St Kitts on March 14.

—Reuters