Neser eyes long-awaited breakout after OP setback

Queensland paceman Michael Neser is on the comeback trail from injury as he prepares himself for what he hopes will at long last be his breakthrough summer in Test cricket.

Neser, who has long been on the fringe of Australia's highly-regarded pace attack in both Test and one-day cricket, played two ODIs against England in 2018 on what was head coach Justin Langer's first tour in charge.

He has since been in and out of national squads with frustrating regularity, but the 30-year-old's optimism remains undimmed, even in the wake of his latest setback – a case of osteitis pubis (OP).

"Three weeks into our pre-season I just started feeling this uncomfortable pain near my groin, and I thought I'd get on the front foot and check it out before the season starts," Neser told cricket.com.au.

"Lucky I did, because OP is one of those things that can stick around for quite a while if you don't manage it.

"I was talking to the physios and they think it's a combination of the amount of cricket I've played over the last couple of years, and also during isolation I was doing a bit more road running, and that probably triggered it as well.

"Then coming back and being a bit too eager to train, I probably did too much too soon and it flared up. But if I'm going to get an injury this is probably an OK time for it, so I can get on top of it and not miss too much cricket.

"I've started to bowl this week, just off a couple of steps. So I'm slowly getting back into it and I'll keep building up and hopefully be ready to go by the end of September, but we'll wait and see; it's very much being treated symptomatically, where if it's feeling good you keep progressing.

"So I haven't got an exact date on (a return), but it's feeling good, which is positive."

Neser was part of the 26-man preliminary Australia squad for the upcoming white-ball tour of the UK, however his injury made his omission an easier decision than what it otherwise might have been.

The right-armer is instead pushing to be fit for what remains an unclear home summer, with the ultimate goal of a Baggy Green still driving him.

"I'd have been pushing it to make that (UK) tour, and then (his injury) would've stuck around for the whole season and affected my four-day cricket," he added. "I'd love to be part of that white-ball set-up but I still want to play Test cricket and four-day cricket so I'm looking at the bigger picture.

"I've got that goal, and that desire to play international cricket. When you're not selected it can be disheartening but at the same time I'm so fortunate I'm around that group. So I'm not whingeing about it.

"You can see the result there and you want it, and you get so close, but I've just got to wait my turn I guess. If I keep doing the right things, it'll happen."

Neser has taken 125 wickets at 23.50 across the past five Sheffield Shield seasons and prior to his injury had been working with long-time fast-bowling mentor Andy Bichel on preparing for a four-day campaign now without the Dukes ball.

"I was working on my wrist position bowling with the Kookaburra," he said. "Obviously there's no Dukes this year so I'll probably have to look to swing the Kooka a bit more, so I'd been making sure I'm on top of that from a technical point of view.

"Bowling with the Duke, everyone's different but I wasn't trying to hoop or swing it around, it was more using that scrambled seam to nip (off the pitch).

"That's what I found with the Duke to be really effective, whereas with the Kooka I'll have to look to swing the ball a bit more.

"Other than that I'm not going to change too much, because I've been going well over the last couple of years. I'm just going to get this injury sorted, try to stay on the park and hopefully put some good performances together."