Cameron Green has been ruled out of Australia’s first Test against South Africa in Durban due to an abdominal injury, head coach Andrew McDonald confirmed on Tuesday (October 6).
Green suffered the injury while batting during Australia’s third ODI against South Africa in Potchefstroom last week. He was struck in the abdominal region by a delivery from Corbin Bosch and subsequently sat out the two-day tour game that followed as he began his rehabilitation.
Australia are hopeful the 27-year-old all-rounder could still feature later in the series, but his involvement could be restricted to the role of a batter. McDonald said Green was making good progress and will undergo a week of rehabilitation as he gradually resumes cricket-related activities.
“He won’t be available for the first Test match,” revealed McDonald, adding that the recovery has been promising. “He’s progressing pretty well, all things considered, on the back of the injury that he had to his abdominal. So he’s still here for a reason, so that there is some light at the end of the tunnel.”
Green is expected to have a few net sessions during the first Test as part of his return to cricket plan. “It’ll just be a matter of going through the rehab. He’s got a pretty demanding week this week as he reintroduces a few activities and and you’ll see that probably play out in the net situation during lunchtime in and around the game. So yeah, it’s it’s a bit of an unknown, but there’s still optimism that he will take part in the series at some some stage,” added McDonald.
Meanwhile, McDonald did not confirm that Beau Webster would be an automatic choice in Green’s absence. The 32-year-old all-rounder featured in the two-Test series against Bangladesh in August this year along with Green, and has played 10 Tests since January 2025, when he made his debut against India in Sydney.
“I don’t think anything’s automatic,” said McDonald on Webster. “The all-rounder has always been there for us, but there hasn’t been a huge demand on the amount of overs that that person has to, you know, your bowl.
“So, yeah, I think the the beauty of the squad that we’ve got is we can go in many directions, depending on you know what we hypothesize what’s going to happen over the five days the day before. So I think we’ve got all bases covered, which is nice to have that.
“So there’s a lot of discussion about which way we can go, and three days out is never the time to start having those discussions. We’ve got a main session today, so we’ll get a bit more information on where the players are at in terms of you know their skill work and how they’re placed, and as that surface starts to present closer to the game as to what it may start like, I think that’s when we can narrow in,” said the Australia coach.