Cricket
Cummins out with back injury
2012-11-02 07:40
Sydney - Australia's emerging star paceman
Pat Cummins has been diagnosed with an early stage stress fracture in
his lower back, effectively ruling him out of the season, officials said
Friday.
Nineteen-year-old Cummins, who was not named for the
upcoming first Test against South Africa, developed a back soreness
during the Twenty20 Champions League in South Africa which his Sydney
Sixers ultimately won.
Because of his history of injury, officials
elected to investigate the matter and Friday advised that Cummins has
been diagnosed with a bone stress injury of the lower back.
"Because
of his age and past history we decided to investigate the source of the
pain and unfortunately he has an early stage stress fracture of his
spine, confirmed by scans today," team physiotherapist Alex Kountouris
said.
"Pat had a spine bone stress injury a few years ago but the
current injury is new and in an entirely different part of the spine."
Kountouris
said Cummins was expected to fully recover and would be closely
monitored to determine his return to the playing field, but officials
expect he will miss most of the 2012-13 domestic cricket season.
Cummins
has only played one Test but is seen as one of Australia's most
exciting prospects. He broke down with a foot injury during Australia's
Test tour of South Africa a year ago which cost him the last domestic
season.
He said at least time was on his side with the latest injury.
"Pretty
much the worst-case scenario was finding a little bit of a crack there
and there was -- and I guess there's nothing else to do but to wait a
couple of months," he told reporters on Friday.
"It was pretty
unexpected. I came back from South Africa and I felt pretty good and
thought it was just a precautionary scan and unfortunately they found
something."