Perth, Nov 24 (IANS) Australia head coach Andrew McDonald said skipper Pat Cummins ‘looked like a player nearing the completion of his rehabilitation’ after bowling at full tilt in Perth, but added that a final decision on his participation in the second Ashes Test in Brisbane will be taken late.

The early finish in Perth meant Cummins, who is on road to recovery following a lower back stress issue, will have his bowling session on Tuesday instead of Monday. The Australian selectors are set to discuss his readiness for a comeback soon, though they will weigh in the timing carefully.

Should Cummins return in Brisbane and the match runs for all five days, there would still be an eight‑day gap before the third Test takes place in Adelaide. “Once we see him again we’ll be able to then join the dots as to what that potentially looks like. But for those who saw him in Perth, I did say this a while back that he’ll be up and bowling…and people will be sitting there questioning why he’s not playing.”

“It looked like a player that was nearing the completion of his rehabilitation. The intensity was there, the ball speed was there. There’s a lot of positives, but now it’s just really building that resilience within the soft tissue and making sure that we’re not putting him in harm’s way in terms of accelerating it too much.”

“But it will be a genuine discussion leading into this Test match. That may be one that eventuates late for us. A little bit to work through but it’s nearing completion, which is really, really positive,” McDonald told reporters on Monday.

Meanwhile, fast bowler Josh Hazlewood has entered the first week of rehabilitation to recover from a low‑grade hamstring injury, with McDonald declining to set a timeline for his return in the Ashes. Hazlewood is expected to link up with the squad in Brisbane to continue his recovery.

“He’s working through the first week of his rehab. I’m not sure that we need to give an update on that. Once he gets further down the track and (we) have some rough timelines, then we’ll be in a position to communicate that.”

“I know that he’ll be available at some point during the series. We’ve got a little bit of that early rehab to go through to formulate where he may plug into the series, but we expect him to take some part in the series.”

“I know that he’ll be available at some point during the series, and once again, we’re not going to put our medical team into a scenario where we identify a game and then the speculation starts around that,” added McDonald.

–IANS

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