MORE: Craig McDermott to stay as Australia's bowling coach



Fast bowler Pattinson is set to be sidelined for another lengthy period as his persistent back troubles continue.

Pattinson missed the majority of the domestic summer as he recovered from stress fractures suffered on last year's Ashes tour of England.

He used a Big Bash League stint with Melbourne Renegades to prepare for the tour of South Afrcia where the Victorian starred in Australia's third Test triumph in Cape Town during early March.

He did not play in Australia's failed World T20 campaign shortly after, and if McDermott has his way, the right-armer won't play the game's shortest format ever again.

"That format is not made for measured, rhythmic bowling, and will likely do him more harm than good."





James Pattinson has battled back injuries most of his career. Photo: Getty

McDermott would not give a timeframe for Pattinson's return.

"With Patto it'll depend how he heals, first and foremost. That's got to improve from a clinical point of view before we get to the path we'll go down with his technical side of it," he said.

"The timeline on that hasn't even been determined yet, so we'll just see how he progresses over the next few months. I want to make sure we take our time and get it right.

"He's obviously having some sort of trouble with his skeletal make up that's not coping at his age. He's almost at the age where you'd think he's not going to get too many more problems, but everyone's different.

"Patto does bowl fast, he's not a 130kph bowler, so we've got to make sure we get him right and take our time to bring him back nice and slowly."

Meanwhile fellow spearhead and Ashes hero Ryan Harris is unlikely to make the trip to the UAE in October for the Test series against Pakistan.

The veteran is still recovering from a knee operation.





Ryan Harris' recovery from knee surgery has not been as fast as initially hoped. Photo: Ian Hitchcock (Getty)

"He's definitely touch and go for Dubai, we've just got to see how his knee goes over the next few months," McDermott said.

"We've just got to monitor him to see how his knee's coping with his rehabilitation, and see if it's possible to get him up for there.

"I don't think there's any point rushing Ryano either, we've got a lot of cricket with India, World Cup, West Indies and the Ashes, we've got to make sure he's 100 per cent when he comes back."