Australia hopeful on Clarke injury

Clarke was ruled out of the remainder of Australia's one-day international series with South Africa after suffering a recurrence of the problem in the first ODI against the Proteas, prompting fears that he could also miss out on the opening Test against MS Dhoni's side, which begins in Brisbane on December 4.

Australia head into the four-match Test series with India after their final two ODIs against South Africa, before their focus shifts to co-hosting the World Cup with New Zealand in February.

It is a third hamstring setback in two months for Clarke and he is also suffering with his long-standing back condition which Australia's team physiotherapist Alex Kountouri revealed was also affecting his hamstring complaint.

Kountouri gave an update on Clarke's injury at a press conference on Thursday and while he refused to put a timescale on when the 33-year-old batsman would be able to play again, he insisted that he should not face a lengthy spell on the sidelines.

"Michael's got a recurrence of his hamstring injury that he had back in Zimbabwe (in the August and September triangular series) so it's disappointing that he's got the same injury," Kountouri said.

"Obviously it's not as bad as it was in Zimbabwe but it's in the same location. He's also got a sore back, we've had an aggravation of his back. The two are tied together, which makes the injury quite complex."

When asked whether Clarke would feature for Australia this summer, he added: "I'd like to think so. We're not looking that far ahead but we're just trying to get him right at the moment to see what he's going to be available for. It's not that dramatic that he's going to miss the whole summer, not with this current injury.

"I can't put a figure on it right now but as he is right now he hasn't started running, he hasn't started doing any of the functional things that we want him to do, he's not able to bat so he's not ready to play at the moment.

"His next game of cricket is a grade game on the weekend and he's not available for that, then there's a (Sheffield) Shield game that's starting next Tuesday and he's not available for that and that's as far as we're looking.

"I'm still hopeful that he might be right for the first Test because that's two weeks away but we need to review it again next week. But he needs to start running and start doing things before we make a decision on whether he's okay to play."