Harris to miss Pakistan series

Ryan Harris has been officially ruled out of Australia's upcoming Test series against Pakistan and it remains unclear when the veteran paceman will be available for selection again.

Harris underwent major knee surgery in March after bravely steering Australia to a series-clinching victory in the third Test against South Africa in Cape Town.

The world's No.2 ranked Test bowler had initially been hopeful of returning for the two-Test series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates in October, but Australian team physiotherapist Alex Kountouris confirmed on Tuesday that Harris would not be picked.

"We're certainly not looking to him to be right for the UAE at the moment," Kountouris said.

"He's going to start running in the next couple of weeks and we'll see how his knee responds to that and hopefully it'll respond the way we expect.

"If he copes with that, we'll transition him into bowling.

"We're looking for him to be able to play somewhere before Christmas.

"Hopefully it'll be the India Test matches and he'll play some Sheffield Shield matches before that, but until he starts running and then bowling it's very hard to predict what's going to happen."

Although the fast bowler remained hopeful, privately he had accepted for some time that he would not be fit in time for the UAE and had adjusted his recovery programme accordingly.

The 34-year-old's performance against the Proteas at Newlands in March was one of the most courageous from a fast bowler in recent memory.

In desperate need of knee surgery and also battling a hip flexor injury, Harris produced one final effort to take the last two wickets of the match and secure victory with just 27 balls remaining.

Harris went under the knife just days later and forecast a long and difficult recovery process ahead.