Marsh upbeat on injury despite missing scans

The exact prognosis of Mitch Marsh's ankle injury has been delayed by the mystery of some missing medical scans, but the allrounder is optimistic he’ll be back playing before India's Test tour of Australia begins.

Marsh counted his blessings that his Indian Premier League side Sunrisers Hyderabad secured him a spot on a flight home from the UAE last week, but the results of the X-rays he had on his injured right ankle did not make the trip with him.

Cricket Australia’s medical team have not been able to analyse the results of the scans Marsh had taken after he turned his ankle in his first game of the IPL.

With the 28-year-old now serving 14 days of hotel quarantine in Perth, CA are trying to arrange for him to get clearance to have another scan.

Marsh, who joked that "I'm almost a physio these days" given his rotten run with injuries, is confident he will not require surgery and is hopeful of returning to captain Western Australia in round three or four of the Sheffield Shield, potentially as a specialist batter initially.

That could see him put his name forward for inclusion in Australia's Test squad to play India, whose tour is scheduled (though remains subject to change) to begin in December.

"Hopefully I can get back for the last (Shield) game or the maybe even last two games (before the Big Bash break) if things go really well," Marsh told reporters via Zoom from his hotel room on Tuesday.

"We don't really know what happened with the scans over in the UAE. Cricket Australia haven't been able to get their hands on them.

"Hopefully I'll go for another scan this week if I can get clearance (from the Western Australian government) and then we'll be a lot clearer on what we're dealing with. At this stage I'm hoping I can get back for at least one Shield game.

"If there is one positive to come out of it is that I (might) be playing some Shield cricket."

Marsh was facing a long and mentally-challenging stint in the UAE after his injury given the difficulties of arranging last-minute international travel.

Had the Sunrisers had not been able to find him a seat on a commercial flight home to Perth, he could have been forced to wait in the UAE for up to six weeks before a charter flight with the rest of the Australian players featuring in the IPL is due to head home after the final on November 10.

"There was a bit of chat around there being no available flights for about a month … We knew it was going to be potentially hard to get back in (to Australia)," Marsh said.

"Somehow the team manager for the Sunrisers (found one, and) texted me and told me I was on a flight that night."

His good fortune on the travel front, however, is overshadowed by yet another injury blow.

Marsh has undergone surgery in each of the past three years; on his right shoulder in 2017, on his left ankle in 2018 and on his testicle in 2019.

And at the start of last summer's Sheffield Shield season, he broke his right hand after punching a wall in frustration at a dismissal, just weeks after he had made a triumphant return to the Test team in the final Ashes Test by taking a maiden five-wicket haul.

His latest setback, which came as he tried to stop a ball in his follow through, comes right after he made a successful showing in Australia's limited-overs teams in England last month.

"Hopefully my best cricket is still ahead of me," said Marsh.

"It's really frustrating and a little unlucky – I've tried to dive for the ball like that probably a thousand times in my career. My spikes just got caught in the wicket – it's just one of those really frustrating injuries.

"I've been through a few (injuries) now and think I know how I deal with it. I moaned and groaned for about 48 hours while I was in the UAE - I was really disappointed to miss out on the opportunity to play in the UAE again.

"But now I'm getting stuck into my rehab and doing everything I can to be fully fit, whenever that is."