Pat Cummins issues major Ashes injury update as Australia announcement imminent

Pat Cummins has been forced to admit that he is a serious doubt for the Ashes. Australia's captain has revealed that he still can't bowl just 50 days before the first Test against England in Perth.

Cummins, 32, is dealing with bone stress in his lower back, ruling him out of Australia's ongoing white-ball series in New Zealand. The fast bowler suffered frequent injuries in the early part of his career, although he's been virtually ever-present since he returned to the Test team in 2017 and later became captain.

But his participation in the Ashes has been thrown into jeopardy, as Australia put the final touches on their squad ahead of welcoming England to Optus Stadium on November 21 for the highly-anticipated series. Cummins could require up to three more scans to determine his involvement in the first Test, as he's currently restricted to gym work, walks and 'some cycling'.

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"We'll probably use one or two, maybe even three scans to kind of gauge how the back's tracking," Cummins told news.com.au. "But like a lot of injuries, you have clinical signs of how you're feeling, symptoms.

"You just want to make sure everything's as we expect. That'll be pretty important, but like anything, there's always multiple factors. We've got a bit of time. Obviously, you can't just go from no bowling to bowling tomorrow, so there'll be a ramping-up period as well, where you're always tracking along with the physios."

Should the 33-year-old miss out, Australia would turn to fourth-choice seamer Scott Boland, who shot to fame during the 2021-22 Ashes Down Under. Add to that Mitchell Starcand Josh Hazlewood, plus spinner Nathan Lyon, and Australia would still boast a fearsome bowling attack even without Cummins, who'd likely hand captaincy duties to Steve Smith.

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"There's not much you can do to speed it up, unfortunately," Cummins acknowledged. "There's some marginal science that we don't really want to go near, but it's just rest and trying to avoid anything that' going to get in the way of healing, knowing that we’ve got time to ramp up and get bowling.

"(I'm) still doing gym work, pretty much unrestricted, some cycling sessions. The priority at the moment is resting my back. Then once we ramp up, we ramp up."

England's captain, Ben Stokes, is also recovering from an injury, having missed the final chapter of an epic Test series against India in August. Currently training with Durham, all-rounder Stokes is expected to be ready for what's set to be a defining few months for both his captaincy and Brendon McCullum's reign as head coach.

Durham head coach Ryan Campbell recently said that England's talisman 'will be ready' for the Ashes, adding that Mark Wood is 'extremely close' to returning. "Stokes is back in training," Campbell told BBC Radio 5 Live.

"Over the last week, he's started to hit balls and had a really good session. Scott Borthwick was throwing to him with [coach] Will Gidman for nearly two hours. The batting side of things is going very well but the bowling will take a lot longer. He is being treated very steadily."