Injury prone Australian paceman James Pattinson has been ruled out of this summer's Ashes series.
Pattinson missed Australia's recent tour of Bangladesh due to a lower stress fracture in his back and the 27-year-old will now take an indefinite break from cricket after re-aggregating the injury.
“Soon after returning from the UK, following the Champions Trophy and his county cricket contract, James presented with back pain," Sports Science and Sports Medicine Manager Alex Kountouris said in a statement on Wednesday afternoon.
“We made the decision to withdraw him from the Tour of Bangladesh and monitor his pain.
“He returned to bowling after a period of rest and unfortunately he is still experiencing pain with bowling.
“During this time we have been monitoring him, including regular scans and recent imaging has confirmed that James has begun to reaggravate his previous lower back stress fracture.
“As such, he has discontinued bowling as part of his recovery which unfortunately means that he will be unavailable for the beginning of the Sheffield Shield and subsequently Ashes campaign.
“Whilst this is very disappointing that James has reaggravated this old injury, we are confident that he can recover from this and return to playing.
“However, James’ current injury is complex because his history of old stress fractures from his teenage years means there is one part of his spine that absorbs more force than it would normally do.
“This is the area the of current reaggravation but we are hopeful that we can put strategies in place to help manage this when James returns to playing."
Pattinson said he is shattered about his latest injury setback.
“Obviously I am extremely disappointed with this setback after just getting back into a good run of playing cricket,” Pattinson said.
“I’m especially disappointed to miss out on the possibility to play in a home Ashes Series.
“Over the next few weeks I will discuss all available options available to me with medical staff, to work out the best plan to prevent this from happening again.”
Pattinson has not played a Test match since February 2016 against New Zealand.
He has taken 70 wickets at an average of 26.15 in 17 Tests, however, constant injuries have stopped him from reaching his potential on the international scene.
