Achilles flare-up to deny Hazlewood from playing this Ashes series

Just as it was sounding like pace superstar Josh Hazlewood may well play a role in the latter Test series in Sydney and Melbourne this Ashes, a fresh Achilles injury has guaranteed he won’t play at all in the summer.

“I don’t think [Hazlewood] will take part in the series now,” head coach Andrew McDonald confirmed this week while speaking to the media between the Gabba victory and Adelaide’s build-up.

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Hazlewood has been rehabilitating a hamstring injury he suffered just before the Perth Test, and had been expected to step into the side at some point. That has been heavily dented, though, after the 34-year-old landed a new Achilles issue.

“It’s a totally separate injury,” McDonald explained.

“It’s somewhere lower in the calf to [the] Achilles region,” he added.

“I don’t want to get into the medical terms, but that’ll be something that we’ll release with greater detail [later].

“He will be out of the series, and his preparation will then shift towards the World Cup.”

McDonald said he was feeling sorry for Hazlewood, who had been anticipating the Ashes series, adding that the whole squad has rallied around him after the latest injury. “Really flat for him, yeah. He had a couple of setbacks we didn’t see coming, and we thought he would play a huge part in the series. But yeah, really feel for him that he won’t get that opportunity.”

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With Hazlewood confirmed to be out for Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney, Scott Boland will very likely keep his spot. There’s been some early questions about load management for the replacement pacer, with Michael Neser available to step in, but McDonald has suggested Boland would only be rested for Tests four or five if the series was locked away.

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