Doctors keep close watch on Jaques

Phil Jaques hopes to be playing again in a fortnight, but he will be monitored by the Australia and New South Wales team doctors in case there are any complications with his bout of the mumps. Jaques is part of a large group of national players who are sick or injured - Michael Clarke is the latest addition after pulling out of the Pura Cup game against Victoria with a hamstring problem - and Trefor James, the Australia team doctor, said the opening batsman's case was mild.

"It can be more severe in adults but you can't really predict," James said in the Age. "You've just got to wait and see how severely it affects you. At the moment it is not too severe. He just feels very unwell and feverish."

New South Wales have a Pura Cup game in Brisbane on December 14 and Jaques, who scored two centuries in the series against Sri Lanka, wants to play in preparation for the Boxing Day Test. "But the complications you can get [from the illness] don't always arise right at the start," James said.

Clarke has been hampered by his problem for a couple of weeks and will rest ahead of the Chappell-Hadlee Series, which starts on December 14, while Stuart MacGill is still waiting to decide whether he needs more surgery. MacGill has knee and hand problems, but is determined that they won't lead to retirement.

"I have only the best intentions for my future," MacGill told Nine. "I'm not going to play until I'm convinced, and able to convince others, that I'm at the peak of my powers. I want to bowl like a million bucks every time I go on to the field."

MacGill said he was prepared to do "just about anything to get there". "That includes surgery," he said. "At the moment I can't tell you if that's the route I have to take."