Australian star Josh Hazlewood has been left “understandably flat” after his troublesome side flared once again, ruling him out of the Second Test against the West Indies.
Hazlewood was one of the Aussies’ best in the First Test in Perth, regularly beating the bat despite picking up just the two wickets.
But he was a last-minute withdrawal from the team to play in Adelaide on Thursday with a “low level strain” in his side.
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Hazlewood’s no stranger to “frustrating” side injuries, given a side strain derailed his Ashes campaign last summer season.
“I feel for Joshy,” captain Pat Cummins told 7Sport.
“He’s pretty understandably flat.
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“(It’s a) low level strain in his side.
“He was a little bit sore after the last Test match (in Perth), had a bowl in the nets yesterday to prove his fitness and he was a bit sorer than we’d all kind of hoped.
“Unfortunately he misses this one.”
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In eerily similar scenes, Hazlewood had pulled up sore during the First Test against England last summer.
The 31-year-old later revealed he had carried some “discomfort” into that clash at the Gabba before the pain became too much to continue on.
“If I’d had a normal (side strain), a big injury and you know you’re going to be out, then you can deal with it all at once. But it just kept teasing, kept teasing, I might be able to play this one, I might be able to play that one,” he recalled to cricket.com.au earlier this year.
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“I’ve certainly had a typical side strain, where you tear your oblique (muscle), you can’t bowl another ball and are out for at least six or seven weeks.
“This one was different … the strength came back really quickly, and I could do a lot of things in the gym.
“It was just bowling, that dynamic movement, that caused a bit of grief. It was an unusual one.”
Hazlewood was replaced by Michael Neser for the Second Test in Adelaide, while skipper Cummins also misses with a quad injury.
Scott Boland was named as Cummins’ replacement earlier in the week.
