Kasprowicz to miss Ashes

Jason Gillespie may get a chance to replace Michael Kasprowicz © Getty Images

Veteran Australian pace bowler Michael Kasprowicz will almost certainly miss the Ashes series due to a recurrence of a chronic back injury.

The 34-year-old, who was part of Australia's Ashes campaign last year in England, had been in the running for the third seamer's position in the Test team behind Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee.

Stuart Clark, who has sustained a thigh injury, Jason Gillespie, who was dumped during the 2005 Ashes for poor form, and young tearaways Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson were seen as the other bowlers in competition with Kasprowicz for the bowling spot.

However, with the news that Kasprowicz has again succumbed to a troubling back injury in training for the start of the domestic season in Australia, it appears his Ashes dream is over.

"It's proving a little bit hard to handle at the moment as far as pain," Kasprowicz said.

"The timing at this stage we don't know. The doctors are still investigating what it is and how to fix it."

At this stage, Queensland medical staff are almost certain the medium-fast bowler's injury is a repeat of the disc trauma that sidelined him from the third Test against South Africa in March.

With his Ashes hope in tatters, the big Queenslander pushed his support behind young left-armer Johnson to fill the vacancy.

Former Australia fast bowling greats Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson have already backed a call-up for Johnson to the Test team, and Kasprowicz echoed the sentiments.

"Mitchell provides a point of difference to that attack too, being left-arm, being fast and he swings it," he said.

"That's something exciting that he brings to the (Australia attack)."