Sydney: Cricket Australia is hopeful test captain Michael Clarke will recover from his injured left hamstring in time to play the opening match against India in two weeks.
Australian team physiotherapist Alex Kountouris said Thursday it was still not clear how long Clarke, who was not present for Thursday's injury update, would be out of action.
Kountouris says the injury was "not that dramatic that he's going to miss the whole summer" and he was hoping Clarke would lead Australia into the first test at Brisbane's Gabba ground on Dec. 4.
Clarke, who also has a degenerative back condition, re-injured the hamstring during the first one-day international against South Africa in Perth last Friday, forcing him out of the remainder of the five-match series.
It was the third time Clarke has injured the hamstring since August.
"I can't put a figure on it right now," Kountouris said of a date for Clarke's possible return. "As he is right now, he hasn't started running; he hasn't started doing any of the functional things that we want him to do. He's not able to bat. But I'm still hopeful that he might be right for the first test because that's two weeks away."
Former captain Allan Border has urged Clarke to quit limited-overs internationals after the World Cup next year to concentrate on his test career.
"If he wants to prolong his career, I think he should give away the short form," Border said. "We've got a home World Cup only a few months away, fingers crossed he can get himself through that, and I would be thinking ... whatever happens I'm going to concentrate for the next couple of years on being the best test player I can be.
"I would think that would be less stress on his body, not as much energy required with running between the wickets, that kind of thing. To me that would be the perfect scenario."
Border wrote in his recent book, "Cricket As I See It," that the 33-year-old Clarke is capable of finishing his career as Australia's highest run-scorer.
Ricky Ponting leads with 13,378 and Clarke is fifth on the Australian run-scoring list with 8,297, also behind Border, Steve Waugh and Matthew Hayden.
"If Michael's dodgy back holds up ... I see no reason why he shouldn't go right to the top of that list," Border wrote.
