Allan Donald's latest comeback from injury came to a premature end at the weekend when he aggravated an old stomach-muscle tear while playing for Free State, his South African provincial team. Donald has been sidelined with stomach-muscle problems before, in New Zealand in 1999 and against the same opposition in South Africa in 2000. He was laid low once again earlier this year, but appeared to have recovered -- he had been playing domestic games to regain full match-fitness. This latest setback to his increasingly injury-hit career means that he will definitely miss the three-Test series against India, and is doubtful for the tour of Australia in December.

South Africa's physiotherapist, Craig Smith, refused to rule Donald out of that trip, but admitted that he now faced a race against time to be fit. "We leave for Australia in about five-and-a-half weeks," said Smith, "so there is time. But it's up to the selectors as to whether they want him for the Tests or the one-dayers. We are very hesitant to push him back into action. This injury is too repetitive."

But Smith denied that Donald had returned to action too soon. "The injury had healed completely, but it probably healed with scar tissue," he told the Johannesburg Sunday Times. "There certainly was nothing to show that the injury had not healed completely and that there might be a weakness."

The news completed a miserable weekend for the South Africans, coming less than a day after it was revealed that Mfuneko Ngam, seen by many as the long-term successor to Donald as South Africa's Test spearhead, had suffered a stress fracture of the right tibia.

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