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Injured Hughes ponders return in three months

Phillip Hughes is hoping to get back on the field before the end of the English summer as he continues to recover from a serious shoulder injury

Cricinfo staff
02-Jun-2010
Phillip Hughes is keen to get some time at the crease before the Australian summer  •  Getty Images

Phillip Hughes is keen to get some time at the crease before the Australian summer  •  Getty Images

Phillip Hughes is hoping to get back on the field before the end of the English summer as he continues to recover from a serious shoulder injury. Hughes had surgery on his left shoulder four weeks ago after hurting it during boxing training and it has ruled him out of Australia's Tests against Pakistan in England in July.
However, Hughes could consider a stint in county or league cricket to get some game-time ahead of the Australian season. Although he will be hard-pressed to fight his way into the side for the first Ashes Test with Simon Katich and Shane Watson the established openers, Hughes knows that the more matches he plays before then the better his chances of international action.
"Time wise, three months from now if I'm back fully fit three months from now I'll be very happy," Hughes told AAP. "It might not take as long or it might take a bit longer depending on how rehab goes.
"England is something I could be thinking about, for now I'm just worried about my shoulder, and then when it's closer to 100%, depending on timeframe and where I am and what's around, I'll definitely be looking at playing something."
Hughes' last taste of Test cricket came in Wellington in March, when he hared to 86 in Australia's chase of 106. The injury at least came during his off-season and he was content with the progress he had made since the problem arose.
"I can move it now, it's been three weeks and I've been doing a little bit of rehab, but I'll start fully into rehab every day next week," Hughes said. "It could've been a lot worse [timing] but it's never a good time to get injured.
"I've been quite lucky with injuries, never had big injuries like this before in the last four or five years of my professional cricketing career, so I've been lucky, but if there's a positive to come out of it, it's good that it happened now and not in the middle of summer."