James Pattinson ruled out of Ashes with lower back injury; to take ‘indefinite break’

James Pattinson has been ruled out of the coming Ashes. (Source: AP File)

James Pattinson who was being billed as the fourth member in Australia’s seam bowling attack for the upcoming Ashes, has been ruled out of the series. He has been confirmed to be out of the series and could face an even injury period out following a lower back injury. Cricket Australia confirmed the injury and reaggravating of the lower back stress fracture.

Pattinson was ruled out of the tour of Bangladesh and India due to pain he had reported following appearances in the English County and then the ICC Champions Trophy.

“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,” CA science and sports medicine manager Alex Kountouris said in a statement.

“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 re-aggravated this old injury, we are confident that he can recover from this and return to playing,” Kountouris said. “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 of the current re-aggravation but we are hopeful that we can put strategies in place to help manage this when James returns to playing.”

Pattinson expressed disappointment with further medical blow and the chance to play the Ashes at home going away. “Obviously I am extremely disappointed with this setback after just getting back into a good run of playing cricket,” he 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,” he added.

In the pace quartet, only Pat Cummins is fully fit with Mitchell Starc fighting back to fitness and Josh Hazlewood is in the latter stages of recovery from a side strain. Nathan Coulter-Nile is now expected to replace Pattinson in the Australia squad for the Ashes that begins on November 23.