Tim Paine 'extremely confident' of regaining full fitness before the Ashes

Australia Test captain Tim Paine is confident of returning to full fitness before the start of the upcoming Ashes series on home soil.

Paine recently underwent invasive neck surgery. The 36-year-old stumper has struggled with a bulging disc in his neck and left arm in the recent past and ultimately decided to go under the knife last week.

Doubts emerged over Paine's participation in the Ashes following his neck surgery. However, the Tasmanian has asserted that he'll achieve full fitness in time and may even play a Shield game before the start of the series.

Speaking to SEN radio, Paine said:

"I'll be dealing with physio at the hospital for the next six weeks or so before I'm handed back over to Cricket Tasmania and Cricket Australia to start my cricket rehab. I'll hopefully get a Shield game in for Tassie before then and hopefully be on the winning end of a third winning Ashes would be something really special."

The Ashes is scheduled to get underway on December 08 at the Gabba. However, it remains to be seen whether England will field their first-choice XI given the reluctance of senior players to serve quarantine Down Under.

'"They cut a big hole in my throat, move my voice box over" - Australia skipper Tim Paine on surgery ahead of Ashes

Meanwhile, Paine has provided chilling details of his invasive neck surgery. The Australian Test skipper revealed that his the doctors made a big hole in his throat, moved his voice-box to the side and replaced the damaged discs with the new set.

He said:

"I ended up having disc replacements on C-6 and C-7, high up in the neck. Basically, they cut a big hole in my throat, move my voice box over to the side and go in that way."

"It's less invasive than going through the back way, obviously with your spine it's the safer way of doing it. So they take them (damaged discs) out, put the new discs in and stitch it back up," he added.

The wicketkeeper-batsman admitted that the recovery process is set to be slow.

He said:

"It actually feels really, really good except for the front where I've got the cut. I feel like my range is already better and I've just got to make sure the front, where the cut is, heals and I give the disc time to 'take' to the rest of my spine over the next month or so, and then get moving."

"It's a pretty slow process, if I'm totally honest. I'll be (restricted to) walking for the next couple of weeks, and doing a lot of little neck physio-type movements just to try and get the smaller muscles in my neck working again," signed off the Australia skipper.

Paine will hope that the series goes ahead, which could allow him to potentially become the first Australian skipper since Steve Waugh to retain the Ashes both home and away.