Australia rapidly After choosing to have the same surgery that Cameron Green had last year after suffering another stress fracture in his lower back, Lance Morris will be sidelined for the entire 2025–26 season and is anticipated to be out of commission for a full year.
After being ruled out of the ODI series against South Africa, centrally contracted Morris, 27, will have pars stabilisation surgery in Christchurch to treat an ongoing lumbar bone stress problem, Cricket Australia revealed on Sunday. Additionally, he was scheduled to play in the four-day Australia A tour of India.
Morris will follow Green’s course from last October after extensive talks with the surgeons, CA medical staff, and Morris.
New Zealand quicks, India’s Jasprit Bumrah, and fellow Australian Ben Dwarshuis In order to fix the stress fracture and stop it from happening again, Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, and numerous other people have undergone the same treatment, which involves fusing a titanium cable and screws into their lower back.
“I feel this is the most logical way to realise my full potential and return to my very best cricket for the Scorchers, Western Australia and Australia long into the future,” Morris stated. “I also have a lot of faith in others who have had similar operations and recovered to their full potential. I intend to put in a lot of effort during my recuperation and come back when the time is appropriate.
Surgeons Rowan Schouten and Grahame Inglis, who are based in New Zealand, have performed the procedure on fast bowlers for twenty years with an incredible success rate in getting them back to play. Nick Jones, a former Australia team physiotherapist and current full-time CA injury case manager, has extensive expertise with post-operative rehabilitation after working through it with Green and another Australia quick, Jason Behrendorff, back in 2019.
For Morris, who has had a very tough run with injuries, it is a huge stride. He hasn’t been able to play more than three first-class games uninterrupted since making his Test debut at the beginning of the 2022–2023 summer, when he grabbed 26 wickets in four Sheffield Shield matches while bowling at speeds over 150 kph.
He participated in the 2023 Test tour of India and was carried as a member of the Test squad during the Australian home summers. After an unbroken BBL, he made his ODI debut in February 2024 after playing in three Shield matches at the beginning of the 2023–24 home summer. However, he only played one ODI last summer and injured his team in his second game in Canberra.
Under strict supervision, he participated in two Shield matches at the beginning of the previous summer before appearing in eight of the Perth Scorchers’ BBL games. After taking 5 for 26 in his final Shield match against New South Wales in March, he played two more Shield matches at the close of the summer but hasn’t played since.
Since receiving his first CA contract in 2023, Morris’ management has generated controversy among CA, his home state of Western Australia, and the fast bowler himself for the last two years.
He has occasionally felt completely fit, but routine lower back MRI scans have revealed recurrent problems for CA medical professionals, disqualifying him from the 2023 Ashes and the 2024 UK white-ball tour.
“It’s been a bit frustrating,” Morris said in September of last year when speaking to ESPNcricinfo. “I suppose you refer to it as a stress fracture, yet upon scanning, it lacks the typical stress fracture’s inherent features. Therefore, there was initially some misunderstanding over its precise nature.
“The tricky one for me was I didn’t actually have any back pain when I was bowling.”
He is also a bowler who has improved with more playing time, particularly at the first-class level, although it has proven challenging to manage playing a run of games without getting hurt.
It will be hoped that the operation would give him some continuity, as it does for many fast bowlers throughout the world. However, several of the fast bowlers who have undergone the process have still had their red-ball loads capped, with the current management of Bumrah by India serving as a great example. Henry, on the other hand, does not bowl at the express speeds of others.
Before a brutal stretch of international cricket from October 2026 to November 2028, which includes three away Test matches against South Africa, four home matches against New Zealand, five away matches against India, a home match against England to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Test cricket and a potential World Test Championship final, five away matches against England, and an ODI World Cup in South Africa, Australia is eager for Morris to be healthy and playing.
With Australia’s assault about to undergo a major change, fast bowling depth will be crucial. Josh Hazlewood is 35 in January, Mitchell Starc turns 36 in January, and captain Pat Cummins turns 33 in May 2026.
Morris and another wounded West Australian CA quickly With Australia’s 2024 Under-19 World Cup winning quicks, Callum Vidler, Tom Straker, Charlie Anderson, and Mahli Beardman just beginning the move from U-19 to first-class cricket, 28-year-old Jhye Richardson is in the perfect age range to join the team after the big three finish up.
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