Australia lose key pacer to injury for entire Ashes series

Australia have suffered a potentially massive blow with news that key pacer Josh Hazlewood will miss the entire Ashes series due to injury.

Hazlewood hurt his hamstring when featuring in Australia's domestic Sheffield Shield competition last month and missed the first two matches of the Ashes against England as the Aussies opened up a 2-0 series lead.

The right-armer then suffered a further setback last week when he hurt his Achilles, with Australia coach Andrew McDonald revealing on Tuesday that the pacer would miss the entire Test summer and will now instead focus on recovering in time for the ICC Men's T20 World Cup that commences on February 7.

"Unfortunately, Josh won't be a part of the Ashes," McDonald said.

"Really, really flat for him. A couple of setbacks that we didn't see coming, and we thought he would play a huge part in the series.

"It's a totally separate injury. It's somewhere lower in the calf to Achilles region. His preparation will then shift towards the World Cup, which is an incredibly important campaign for us."

The news on Hazlewood is offset by the likely return of skipper Pat Cummins for the next Test in Adelaide, with McDonald revealing the Australian captain was almost certain to feature in the third Test of the series.

"His body's ready to go and barring anything else happening in the next week, I'd be expecting Pat to be tossing the coin and putting the blazer on," McDonald said.

McDonald said Cummins was extremely close to featuring during the second Test at the Gabba, where the Aussies registered their second consecutive eight-wicket triumph over England for the series.

"There won't be any match opportunities for Pat, and this is something we've done with Pat before, off long layoffs, where we've put some time and effort into rebuilding his body," McDonald said.

"He was out at Allan Border Field, while everyone was out at the Gabba. So he simulated pretty much what a match will look like out there with multiple spells. So we feel as though he'll be as best prepared as he can be.

"He was well ahead of where we thought he'd be at. And it did create a real live conversation for Brisbane, the skill readiness, the loads, how he was pulling up. It was debated a lot leading into that Test match. So with that in mind, us seeing him further advanced, we feel it'd be really well placed for the challenges of Adelaide, albeit off a long way off. We feel as though the simulation in the nets have got him skill ready."

Series schedule:

First Test: Perth Stadium, November 21-22 (Australia won by eight wickets)
Second Test: Gabba, December 4-7 (Australia won by eight wickets)
Third Test: Adelaide Oval, December 17-21
Fourth Test: MCG, December 26-30
Fifth Test: SCG, January 4-8