Australia captain Pat Cummins may not be fit enough to play a full part in this winter's Ashes, with head coach Andrew McDonald admitting his recent back problems are "not ideal".

Cummins is integral to his side's hopes against England, both as leader of the team and the pace attack, but is currently sidelined with back problems.

McDonald is trying to remain optimistic about his skipper's prospects but stopped short of predicting he would be able to line up in all five games, with the series kicking off in Perth on November 21.

Instead, McDonald appears to be banking on the seamer to make a big impact whenever he is ready to take the field.

"It's not ideal. I'm not going to sit here and say that it's ideal. He does have a lumbar bone stress issue there. So he'll just work through what

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