Marsh's elbow surgery blow

Shaun Marsh's injury woes have continued with the left-hander sidelined for up to four months with a serious elbow injury that will see him go under the surgeon's knife next week.

The injury rules Marsh out of Australia's upcoming tours of Zimbabwe and the United Arab Emirates (to face Pakistan on neutral turf) as well as the Twenty20 Champions League campaign in India and the start of the Australian domestic season.

Marsh will have surgery early next week after picking up the injury when throwing a ball playing for Kings Punjab XI in the Indian Premier League earlier this year. Marsh played just two games for the IPL runners-up.

Australia team physiotherapist Alex Kountouris said Marsh saw a specialist on Monday and it was decided that he would have surgery with a view to being fit in time for the ICC Cricket World Cup held in Australia and New Zealand next year.

"It's a pretty significant injury," Kountouris said.

"We don't see it much in cricket; it's a common baseball injury ... pitchers in particular.

"Cricketers tend to cope with just a short period of rest and they come back and do well. Shaun has had a short period of rest, but it's still a problem and we know that surgery takes a long time to recover.

"There's a three-to-four month recovery period and we've chosen to go ahead with that because it gives him time to play for WA and prepare for the World Cup and the Ashes next year."

Kountouris confirmed that Marsh would undergo a procedure known as 'Tommy John Surgery', in which the medial ligament in the elbow is replaced with a tendon from elsewhere in the body.

The surgery is named after former Major League Baseball pitcher Tommy John, who in 1974 became the first professional baseball player to undergo the procedure.

Marsh only returned to the national set-up this year and in March was named as one of 18 players to earn a central contract from Cricket Australia.

The 31-year-old marked his return to Australia's Test side with a brilliant century against South Africa in February, before he bagged a pair in the second Test and was left out of the side for the series decider.

Kountouris also revealed that spinner Ashton Agar has been ruled out for the remainder of the Australia A quadrangular one-day series in Darwin due to a knee injury.

Agar, who played two Tests last winter in the Ashes, had been expected to play for Cricket Australia's National Performance Squad.

"It's a tendon problem that we're trying to manage and being a pre-season tournament, we've decided to get him home and get him right for the start of the season," Kountouris said of Agar.

Agar's Big Bash League franchise Perth Scorchers confirmed that the 20-year-old will be out of action for between 4-6 weeks, meaning he should be fit to play in the Champions League in September.

Agar joins Josh Hazlewood as a casualty from the Australia A series after the NSW fast bowler was ruled out of the tournament with a side strain.

The 23-year-old suffered the injury against India A on Sunday and will be out for action for at least a fortnight.

"That's a bit of a blow because we were looking at him being one of those group of bowlers (for Australia) going into the start of the summer," Kountouris said.

"It's extremely frustrating that he's broken down without really firing a shot.

"He's picked up a side strain, which seems to be an early-season injury. It's frustrating for him, frustrating for the coaches and to all of us.

"It doesn't seem to be a really bad injury at the moment. We're hopeful that it won't keep him out of bowling for too long and we've got some time.

"Hopefully that doesn't cost us much time, we're having it assessed at the moment."