Australia eye World Cup return for Clarke

Australia have not given up hope of captain Michael Clarke leading them at the World Cup after positive reports from the surgeon who operated on his injured hamstring this week.

Clarke suffered a serious injury to the tendon component of his right hamstring on the final day of the Adelaide Test and had surgery on Tuesday, and recovery from such an operation can take months. It is still possible that the Test tour of the West Indies in June might be Clarke's next chance to play international cricket, but the World Cup has not been ruled out.

"Our aim is for him to play in the World Cup," team physio Alex Kountouris said. "That'll be the goal. He's had the surgery and he's going to do the rehab with that intent but we'll only know that in the coming weeks when we know how he's recovering and progressing through the rehab.

"The rehab is dependent on how he progresses from each stage. There's different goals and one day post-injury there's no magic number that ends the rehab. He'll just have to progress through each stage. Initially it's going to be nice and easy. Then he'll start jogging and if he copes with that, he'll be running faster and he'll start doing strength work. We'll know that in the weeks coming."

Clarke has had trouble with his left hamstring over the past few months but it was his right that forced him from the field in Adelaide. Kountouris said that surgery was decided upon in order to reduce the risk of the injury returning in the future.

"Over the last 10 years it's become apparent the tendons when they become injured, they don't heal as well and are prone to reccurrence," he said. "We explored with the surgeon and radiologist, and decided this was the best course of action.

"Speaking to the surgeon, everything went really well. He found what he expected to find and there were no surprises. He managed to do a good repair and he's confident Michael is going to make a good recovery. It's going to heal and it's going to minimise risk of reoccurrence, and that's the goal."

In the immediate aftermath of suffering the injury, Clarke admitted that he might have played for Australia for the last time and he might need to consider his cricket future. However, deciding on surgery was a clear indication that he retained the desire to come back and play for Australia again.

Clarke's injury forced the selectors to consider who would captain the side in the Brisbane Test and they decided on Steven Smith, which indicated a forward-thinking approach. Smith's official role is now as vice-captain to Clarke in the Test side, and if Clarke returns it will give Smith a chance to serve an apprenticeship before taking on the role full time.

While Smith led Australia for the first time on day one against India at the Gabba on Wednesday, Clarke spent much of the day tweeting his thoughts on the match from his bed. "@stevesmith49 doing a very good job," Clarke tweeted at one point.