Clarke aiming for World Cup return

Australia captain Michael Clarke is aiming to be fit for the ICC Cricket World Cup, says Bupa Support Team physiotherapist Alex Kountouris.

Clarke, who underwent surgery on his right hamstring yesterday (Tuesday), has spent the most recent part of his career battling back and hamstring issues, with Kountouris explaining that this latest injury was in fact tendon damage and therefore more likely to affect him repeatedly.

“The actual injury was that he damaged the tendon component of the hamstring,” he told a press conference after play of day one in the second Commonwealth Bank Test.

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“That's something that we've in the last 10 years – (it) has been apparent that the tendons, when they become injured, don't heal as well and are prone to recurrence.

“There's been a trend towards looking at surgery for that sort of injury so we went down that path. “We explored that with the surgeon and the radiologist and decided that was the best course of action for short term and long term for Michael.

“He had the surgery yesterday and, speaking to the surgeon, everything went really well.

“He found what he was expecting to find, there were no surprises and he has managed to do a good repair and from that today he's very confident that Michael's going to make a good recovery.”

Clarke openly speculated on his own future after he left the field on the final day of the first Test, conceding there was a chance he could “never play again”.

This prognosis is far less dire than that, with the surgery designed to prevent recurrence of the injury – something the 33-year-old has dealt with continuously in the back half of 2014.

“It's going to heal and he's going to minimise the risk of having the recurrence, so that's the goal,” Kountouris added.

“Because when they damage the tendon, (it) doesn't have a very good blood supply and that doesn't tend to heal very well.

“The experience that we've got over the last 10 years from the AFL in particular is that these are the sort of injuries that tend to recur unless you get them repaired.

“The surgeon was reasonably happy with what had happened.”

Clarke’s recovery will now largely hinge on his rehabilitation process, with the skipper tweeting post-recovery today.

“The rehab is dependent on how he progresses from each stage,” Kountouris continued.

“There's different goals and obviously only one day post there's no major number that ends the rehab.

“He'll just have to progress through each stage.

“Initially it's going to be going nice and easy, then he'll start jogging and if he copes with that he'll start running fast and then he'll start doing his strength work.

“We'll know that in the weeks coming up.

“Our aim is for him to play in the World Cup, to take part in the World Cup. That'll be the goal.

“He's had the surgery and he's going to do the rehab with that intent.

“But we'll only know that in coming weeks when we know how he's recovering and how he's progressing through the rehab.”