Melbourne [Australia], February 13 (ANI): Victoria coach Chris Rogers said that Australia Test opener Will Pucovski is considering the option of surgery on his troublesome shoulder, which could rule him out of the remainder of the domestic season.
Pucovski injured his right shoulder while fielding on his Test debut against India in Sydney in early January. He was subsequently ruled out of the fourth Test in Brisbane and has not played since.
The opener was named in the Shield squad and was given extra time to recover from the shoulder injury before a final decision on his availability is made.
“He had a net session yesterday, it looked quite sore. It’s definitely his decision, what he wants to do. It’s his career, we’ve got to support that. And that’s in conjunction with the Australia side as well so we’ll support whatever he thinks. He will be getting a lot of advice from different people, so I think that will probably become a little bit clearer over the next week or two,” ESPNcricinfo quoted Rogers as saying.
“It’s hard when I think you’re playing not at 100%. You start to think that’s how you are going to play for the rest of your career. Particularly as the shoulder hasn’t responded to rehab as well he would have liked it to have, so he is probably really considering that option of surgery. He will go and talk to the relevant people and we should hear what he has to say. That will include our medical staff as well,” he added.
James Pattinson is ready to return to first-class action after he was withdrawn from Australia’s Test squad for the final two Tests against India because of a rib injury.
“He wants to get out there, he is a natural competitor. He wants to be on the park as much as he can. But if we look at the schedule and project the amount of overs they might bowl on average, I think we’ll have to manage him and the other bowlers as well,” Rogers said.
“We’ll look to see when we can use him the best, but I wouldn’t expect him to play every game. But we’ve got to try and find the right times. The good thing for us is he is ready to go. He probably just needs a bit more bowling under his belt, but we expect to get that pretty shortly,” he added. (ANI)
