Saturday, 19 Dec, PERTH: Australian team physiotherapist Alex Kountouris compared Ricky Ponting’s injured arm to that of meat bashed with a mallet, placing the skipper in massive doubt for the Boxing Day Test against Pakistan in Melbourne.

While an X-ray on Wednesday cleared the Australian captain of any break to his left elbow after copping a brute of a bouncer from West Indies paceman Kemar Roach, an MRI scan on Thursday confirmed serious tendon damage.

Such is the extent of the injury, Kountouris warned Ponting not to bat in Australia’s second innings in the third Test against the West Indies at the WACA Ground.

But Ponting defied the orders, coming in at No 9 after watching his side lose seven wickets for 68 runs in a massive collapse.

He made little impact, however, popping a catch to short leg after failing to deal with a Roach bouncer.
In 2006, West Australian batsman Damien Martyn missed one Test and a one-day series against Bangladesh due to an elbow tendon injury.

Kountouris said there was a big chance that Ponting could also be forced to the sidelines.
‘He’s in doubt for Melbourne, there’s no doubt about it because his arm has been quite sore,’ Kountouris said on Friday.

‘It’s almost like when you get meat and bash it with a mallet to soften it down, that’s what happened.
‘The fibres have been squashed and disrupted in the tendon.

‘Now every time he uses that muscle he gets a little tearing of the muscle fibres, that’s the potential.
‘He’s better today than he was yesterday (Thursday], which is a good thing but we are not sure about Melbourne. ’

—Agencies
‘I was telling him not to bat all day but with the situation as it was he decided to bat.’

Kountouris was hopeful the injury wouldn’t affect Ponting in the long term.

‘I’m hoping not [but] it can be,’ he said.

‘It’s in the tendon but that’s a possibility. But I don’t think that’s going to happen, I think it will settle down with time.

‘There are other options which are more invasive, but with the Test match only a week away you can’t do anything but give it some time and see if it settles down.’

West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo said his team’s pace attack targeted Ponting with the short ball, knowing the Australian veteran was in pain.

‘When he came out to bat we knew he was carrying an injury, that’s the reason why he batted low down the order,’ Bravo said. ‘Once I bowled my first ball I realised he was still in pain, so then if he’s not comfortable batting we should try to force him to do something he doesn’t want to do.

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