Warne says Michael Clarke’s surgery a success

Brisbane — Michael Clarke’s hamstring surgery had “the best result” possible, former cricketing great Shane Warne said on Wednesday, raising hopes the Australian skipper will make the upcoming World Cup.

Clarke badly tore his right hamstring on Saturday during the first Test against India in Adelaide, a match he went into under an injury cloud given his long history of back complaints.

The 33-year-old said after the match that he was unlikely to play any further part in the four-match Test series against India and that the injury could cut short his career.

But Warne, a close friend of Clarke, said his future was looking better after he underwent surgery on Tuesday, ahead of the World Cup jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand which begins on February 14.

“It was the best result humanly possible they could have had for the operation,” Warne said during his commentary on the current Test in Brisbane for the Nine Network, adding that Clarke was “looking forward to trying to make a good comeback”.

“It’s a better result than expected. Previously the World Cup was a long shot, now he’s more of a chance given how well the operation went.”

Earlier Clarke tweeted that the “surgery went really well.”

Team physiotherapist Alex Kountouris said the successful surgery gave Clarke a good chance of recovery from the hamstring mishap.

“The actual injury was that he had damaged the tendon component of the hamstring,” Kountouris said.

“Speaking to the surgeon, everything went really well.

“He found what he expected to find, there were no surprises, and he’s managed to do a good repair and from that he’s very confident that Michael is going to make a good recovery. It’s going to heal and he’s going to minimise the risk of having a recurrence, that’s the goal.

Clarke had a rough lead-up to the first Test, battling injury and dealing with the shock loss of friend and cricketer Phillip Hughes, who died after being hit in the head by a cricket ball during a domestic match.