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SYDNEY - Shane Bond has ducked the first bullet in his bid for an international future - tests have revealed no sign of a potentially career-ending stress fracture injury in his back.
But the mood in the New Zealand camp was still luke-warm last night as their champion fast bowler continued to be laid low by a back complaint that prevents him from training, and still threatens to end his tri-series and World Cup dream.
Manager Lindsay Crocker was yesterday guarded with his assessment of Bond, and the team administration opted against allowing him to be interviewed, apparently because they believe it's too early to be certain of his status.
The 31-year-old right-armer was on swimming pool leave when the team practised in the afternoon sun, and appears an extremely unlikely starter for Sunday's tri-series one-dayer against Australia, not to mention Tuesday's showdown with England at Adelaide.
"Shane had a bone scan done today and it's come back negative, which is good news," said Crocker. "With Shane and his history, it's one of the first things we want to look at.
"He's a bit sore and we've got a course of anti-inflammatories to settle the injury down, after which we'll start working with him again; just light stuff."
Crocker said it was a huge relief for the New Zealand camp when the MRI scans came back negative, but that there was still concern about what was causing the discomfort if it wasn't a new stress fracture in his vertebrae.
Bond had three stress fractures before he was 21 years old and developed more after making his debut for New Zealand in late 2001, problems that forced a premature end to three tours, and a major operation in 2004.
"Today he's gently in the pool," Crocker said. "We'll start getting him back into work, racehorse style, and if he does suffer any further reaction beyond then, we'll do some further investigation as to whether it's a disc problem or something else.
"We've been down this path with him before, had bone scans, and it's a big exhalation of air for Shane and all of us when we know it's not that dreaded stress fracture.
"He's delighted that it's not that, but equally he's wanting to know what it is. We now know what it isn't, but Shane shares the frustration as to what it actually is."
As for Sunday's game against the world champions, Crocker wouldn't be drawn on Bond's availability, saying any forecast would be more about guesswork than informed comment.
"It's too early to say," he said. "It doesn't appear to be a major structural problem so we want to keep him here and manage him through."
