Ashes 2021-22 | Josh Hazlewood ‘not sure’ of his return in the fourth Test

Ashes 2021-22 has commenced and Australia is the more dominating side in the series so far. They are leading by 2-0 in the series and will be looking forward to getting a series win with a victory in the Melbourne Test. Josh Hazlewood is missing the fixture due to an injury. Hazlewood picked three wickets in the series opener but missed the Adelaide Test.

He was speculated to be back in the squad for the Melbourne Test but Pat Cummins had said that he was pretty sore. Giving an injury update, Hazlewood revealed he is still a bit away from regaining full fitness. 

“I’m still a little bit away, (this Test) is probably a week early. We’re still not sure, we’re going to take this week as it comes and likely have a bowl on Day 3 or Day 5, see how that goes and then build up from there,” Hazlewood was quoted as saying by sen.com.au on Sunday.

“The workloads are still there from the first Test, but obviously I haven’t had a bowl in 10-12 days and we’ll see how it goes on Day 3.” 

The injury was earlier believed to be a side strain but it is a slight tear in his rib cage muscle. Hazlewood revealed that the extent of the injury is still unclear and he is taking “a day-by-day” approach to recover. 

“It’s probably more on feeling this one, it’s a bit of an interesting one, it’s the intercostals in between the ribs, there’s a slight tear. I’ve never had it before, I’ve had the normal oblique side strain, which is the common one, but we’re taking each day as it comes and we’ll make the decisions on basically how I feel,” he stated. 

Hazlewood also expressed his disappointment over missing the third Test in Melbourne. 

“I guess once you're down here, you see the ground and the crowd starting to roll in, it’s pretty disappointing and the same thing with last week at Adelaide, I love being there and not being able to go and watching it on TV, it was disappointing,” he concluded.