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Harris delays knee surgery until after SA tour

Harris, the man-of-the-match as Australia wrapped up a 5-0 series clean sweep against England in Sydney on Sunday, said he needs a clean out of his right knee to remove fragments of floating bone.

‘My knee is no different now than it was a month ago or six weeks ago,’ the veteran paceman said. ‘Unless something really bad goes wrong, which I don’t think it will, after Africa we’ve got enough time off to get it (knee) cleaned up and go from there.’

Following the tour of South Africa in March, Australia will not have another Test series until October against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates which will allow Harris time to recover from the surgery.

Harris, who took 22 wickets in the Ashes series, revealed he considered having knee surgery that would have ruled him out of the fourth and fifth Tests against England. He said he had discussions with his surgeon before Christmas as he felt the effects of back-to-back second and third Tests in Adelaide and Perth.

He went on to play through the pain and earned man-of-the-match honours in Sydney with match figures of 8-61 as Australia completed a series whitewash. ‘There’s bits of bone floating around (and) we were thinking about doing it then and there and missing the rest of the series,’ he said.

‘But I wanted to play five games. I wanted to be a part of it for the whole thing.’ He said the floating bone caused by previous injuries has left him with little cartilage in his right knee, which swells up after a day’s play.

SYDNEY: Australia plan to use the same intimidatory tactics that unravelled England in next month’s tour of South Africa, opening batsman David Warner said Tuesday. ‘We know a couple of their blokes are probably on the back foot,’ Warner said. We’ve got to work out how to get their players out. I know our bowlers are ready.’
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