Cummins out with back injury

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."