Adelaide: Mitch Starc's wish to postpone surgery on his troublesome ankle could be challenged by Cricket Australia, as selectors brace for him to miss February's Test series in New Zealand due to a separate foot injury.
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The optimism of bowling coach Craig McDermott and the player himself about needing a short recovery period, perhaps as little as a month, for the stress fracture in his right foot to heal was countered by a sobering assessment from Rod Marsh. The chief selector instead suggested he faced a minimum absence of three months.
Marsh said he doubted Starc would be fit for the two-Test series in New Zealand in February, and that he was only a possibility of being fit in time for the World Twenty20 in March in India.
"In an ideal world . . . we'd love to have Mitchell Starc playing against New Zealand in the Test series. I don't think that will happen. In an ideal world we'd like to have him playing in the [Twenty20] World Championship. It may happen," Marsh said on Tuesday, when discussing Australia's squad for the series-opening Test against the West Indies in Hobart.
Marsh said selectors were not looking to persuade Starc to use his stint on the sidelines as an opportunity to have the ankle surgery he needs to repair bone spurs.
"If . . . [he also had the ankle surgery] then we mightn't see much of Mitchell for a little while," he said. "He'll be back when he's back. In the meantime we've got to get on with it."
While the selectors will not attempt to change Starc's mind about surgery, the team's medical staff may do so, depending on what specialists have to say after examining Starc later this week.
"Given that Mitchell now has a lay-off with his foot injury we will take this opportunity to meet with specialists in Sydney this week to get an opinion on whether or not surgery is required at this point in time for his ongoing ankle issues," CA team physiotherapist David Beakley said.
"We will look to provide an update later in the week, but at this stage we do not have confirmed timeframes for his return to play."
Marsh also confirmed that when Starc suffered the injury in Adelaide, a stress fracture in his right foot, he contemplated contacting Mitch Johnson to ask him to consider a comeback.
"I thought about it," he said with a laugh, when asked about the scenario. "You've got to respect [the decision of] a bloke when he retires. There's a reason he retired, and that's because he didn't want to play anymore. It's as simple as that, so you don't go there.
"It would have been nice though."
