Tait hit by new injury setback

Shaun Tait has suffered another injury as he attempts to return to national duty after picking up a hamstring problem in South Australia's FR Cup loss to Queensland on Wednesday night. Tait delivered five overs for 33 before leaving the field at the Gabba and a similar concern kept him out of a Sheffield Shield game earlier in the season.

"He's pretty down," the South Australia captain Graham Manou said. "He does take his position in this side and his bowling responsibility quite seriously. To have the struggle of trying to get his body right for 12 months now, that will get him down, but it's up to us as his team-mates to help him through it."

Tait will have treatment on his return to Adelaide and is a doubtful starter for South Australia's next one-dayer against Tasmania on Wednesday. His right elbow has been a long-term concern and that injury played a part in him taking a total break from the game in the middle of the 2007-08 summer due to physical and mental fatigue.

He has taken 11 wickets in two first-class games this season and 12 victims in five one-day matches. "After seven months out we're expecting a hell of a lot of him in this competition, and more so the four-day competition," Manou said. "To play so much cricket in a row it's starting to catch up with his body.

"We knew at the start of the year that Shaun was a guy we'd have to be very careful with as far as managing him. He's a pretty valuable commodity, not only for us but for Australian cricket as well, so we have to be careful with him."