Shoulder surgery to keep Australia's Ashton Agar out of action for four months

All-rounder Ashton Agar has been ruled out of the Australia A winter series and Matador BBQs One-Day Cup after it was revealed earlier today that the 22-year-old’s fall during Western Australia’s training camp recently has caused much more damage than expected with doctors recommending a shoulder surgery that is expected to keep the talented youngster on the sidelines for three to four months.

Agar, who was considered by many as unlucky not to have been picked for Australia’s tour of Sri Lanka, before being drafted into the Australia A squad, had undergone surgery on the same shoulder in April 2015 and a decision has been taken to take corrective action right away with a view on Agar’s long-term fitness.

"Ashton had an appointment with a shoulder surgeon earlier this week and a decision was made to have surgery on his right shoulder," said Alex Kountouris, CA's Bupa Support Team Sports Science and Sports Medicine Manager. "We expect that he will not play cricket for the next three to four months, but the timeframes will become clearer as we monitor his recovery from the procedure."

Victoria spinner Jon Holland has been named as Agar’s replacement in the Australia A side which will be playing two four-day matches against India A and South Africa as well as a quadrangular ODI series involving India A, South Africa A and Australia’s National Performance Squad.

Speaking about Agar’s unfortunate injury, Australian national selector Rod Marsh sympathized with the left-arm spinner but at the same time expressed hope that Holland will seize his opportunity to impress.

"Agar's injury comes at an unfortunate time, but we have selected Jon Holland as his replacement for these two four-day matches,” Marsh said. “Jon had an impressive Sheffield Shield season taking eight wickets during Victoria's win in the final and was Victoria's top wicket-taker at the Matador Cup, earning him the Dean Jones Medal at the end of the season.”

Marsh has high hopes from the rest of the Australian A squad as well as he named a few batsmen and bowlers whom he hoped would take their game to the next level and hopefully realise their dream of representing the national side, sooner rather than later.

"We are lucky enough to have some talented young up-and-coming batsmen performing well. This combined with the experience of Scott Boland and Marcus Stoinis at the national level bolsters the squad nicely,” Marsh said. "Peter Handscomb and Cameron Bancroft both have had impressive seasons and demonstrated strong leadership skills which confirms their appointments of captain and vice-captain respectively.”

"It is important that we continue to build our arsenal of quality fast-bowlers and this squad features some new faces such as Joe Mennie and Dan Worrall, both of whom have impressed at Shield level,” he added.