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Cummins will bounce back: Howard

Australian high performance manager Pat Howard says Pat Cummins doesn't deserve to be pigeon-holed as injury prone.

Cummins is expected to miss the majority of the upcoming domestic season with a recurrence of stress fractures in his lower back, having already been sidelined for the past two summers with the same problem.

The shattered 20-year-old broke down on the Australia A tour of South Africa and must once again go back to the drawing board with his recovery process.

Cummins hasn't played a Shield match since early 2011.

But Howard said Cricket Australia still have every confidence Cummins will one day deliver on the enormous potential he showed in his one and only Test match in 2011.

"What we're not going to do is worry about him in the long term. We know he'll come good," said Howard.

"We know that and you don't want to pigeon-hole people early as young players.

"A lot of young players have injuries and they come out of it.

"We're very supportive of these young bowlers (like Cummins and James Pattinson) coming out and being really hardened bowlers by the time they get into those more formative years."

Howard said CA research has shown fast bowlers' bodies don't start maturing until 24 and conceded injuries can always happen.

However, CA does want to build a reputation for minimising injuries, given the spate of setbacks suffered by their promising stable of quicks over the past couple of years.

Cummins was given a specific plan after his previous injury to alter his action and running style slightly, with the intention of reducing twists to his back.

Despite the changes still not fixing the problem, Howard said CA and Cummins will largely stick with the same model for recovery.

"There was a lot of work put into him generally leading up to those Australia A programs. And that was why he was brought back slowly to try and get that right," he said.

"He's done a lot of work with ex-fast bowlers and worked with the AIS and the medical staff.

"We will work with player, and the management and all those guys again ... come together and map out the plan again. Every year he gets a bit older and a bit stronger and that will help as well."