By IANS,
Sydney : Australian opening batsman Matthew Hayden is flying back from the West Indies after failing to recover from a persistent achilles tendon injury.
Hayden is leaving for home immediately for treatment, missing the remainder of the West Indies tour, the Daily Telegraph reported Thursday.
Skipper Ricky Ponting said Hayden had not recovered as well as expected from the ankle injury since arriving in the Caribbean a fortnight ago.
With physio Alex Kountouris giving Hayden only a slim chance of playing in the third and final Test in Barbados next month, Ponting said it was decided the 36-year-old would return home for treatment to get right for the Champions Trophy in September.
Simon Katich, who replaced Hayden at the top of the order in Australia’s first Test win, will again open in the second Test, starting Friday at Antigua’s Sir Viv Richards Stadium.
“He’s no good,” Ponting said. “Haydos will be going home pretty much as soon as possible. He had some scans the morning after the game in Jamaica, and just with the time difference he had to wait to get the experts back there to have a look at those and obviously there’s some tendon damage.
“He just hasn’t come along as (physio) Alex Kountouris thought he would have up until this point. It’s just not going anywhere, so we just want him to get home … and get him back on a programme to get him right for the Champions Trophy.”
Brad Hodge, who was a late replacement in the squad initially for Michael Clarke, will remain with the team in the Caribbean, but will make way for the vice-captain in the XI for the second Test.
Clarke missed the first Test after being granted compassionate leave to remain in Australia with fiancee Lara Bingle following the death of her father.