Victoria sweat on Harwood injury

Shane Harwood's season could be over before it begins after doctors discovered his shoulder injury is more severe than first thought. Harwood pulled out of the Australia A tour of Pakistan last week after hurting his right shoulder at a Victoria training session.

The Age reported that surgeons were still undecided on whether Harwood, 33, needed an operation. Surgery could end his season and would probably extinguish any hopes he had of breaking into the Australia side. The best-case scenario would be if the doctors chose to give Harwood four to six weeks of treatment in a bid to have him ready for the start of the domestic season in October.

"[Surgery is] one of the options," Greg Shipperd, Victoria's coach, said. "Without speaking over the surgeon or the doctor, it would not be timely at this stage of his career to be having shoulder surgery but we will be directed by the medical staff. We're still trying to establish the best course of action for him."

Harwood's injury came less than a week after his Bushrangers team-mate Andrew McDonald also withdrew from the Australia A trip after having an operation on his shoulder. However, Victoria are confident McDonald will not miss any matches as his recovery has been pleasing.