‘Shattered’ Lee vows to play on despite latest injury setback

St.LUCIA - Australian fast bowler Brett Lee has been shattered by his latest injury setback, but he is determined to play on and force his way back into the national one-day side for the July tour against Pakistan in England.

Lee sustained a muscle strain in his right forearm during the arm up game against Zimbabwe, which has ruled him out of the wenty20 World Cup and also raised doubts over his international areer

However, Lee’s manager, Neil Maxwell, said the 33-year-old fast bowler was not considering international retirement following his fifth notable injury in the past 16 months.

“I don’t think that he is at that mindset at the moment,” The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Maxwell, as saying.

“There is no doubt this is the home straight [of his career], but he knows that last October-November he was playing the best cricket of his career,” he added.

Teammate Nathan Hauritz is also confident that Lee would be able to make recover fully and make a strong comeback.

“Knowing Brett the way I do, he’ll work hard because he still wants to play a lot of cricket. He’ll have to do a lot of work,” he added.

Earlier, Australian team physiotherapist Alex Kountouris had said that the injury was unrelated to Lee’s career-threatening surgery on the same elbow late last year, and said the fast bowler could be back in action within five weeks.

“I think as a long-term injury it shouldn’t be that serious. It’s basically a strain on his forearm muscle just on the inside of his elbow. We don’t see a lot of them. His long-term future is not the problem,” Kountouris said.

“The issue now is whether Lee can summon the mental strength for yet another comeback for a body that keeps asking: when is enough enough?” he added.

The 33-year-old Lee, who has also battled foot, ankle and rib problems, had retired from Test cricket in February to prolong his career in the shorter forms of the game. (ANI)