Injury-ravaged Australian pace spearhead Brett Lee's career is left hanging in the balance after conceding that his future in international cricket is a blur following the latest elbow problem.
"To be totally honest, I need to get away from the game a bit to work out what my future holds," Lee told reporters in Sydney.
"I want to have this forced rest now, and if surgery needs to happen to fix my elbow, I'll be looking anywhere between six to 12 to 14 weeks away from the game, which is the perfect opportunity to get away from everything and work out what I want from cricket," he said.
The 33-year-old, who had to leave midway through the One-day series against India last month due to the elbow problem, said he would meet a couple of specialists in the next two days to get over the "excruciating pain".
Lee, whose career is as much about injury breakdowns as fast bowling, is all but out of the home Test series against the West Indies later this month due to the latest setback.
"Things have been tough for me the past eight or nine months. I was injured prior to the Ashes series, but, most importantly, being six months away from my boy (son Preston), that's been really tough," he said.
"If I don't play another game for Australia or never play another game of cricket again, I'll be pleased with what I've achieved. It's more than what I would have expected when I was the age of 10," he added.
The affable pacer, however, insisted that but for injury problems, he still has a lot of cricket left in him.
"But I still think I've got a lot of cricket left in me yet, which is why I'm not making any comment or call about what will happen with my future. There all things I need to weigh up," he said.
Ever since he burst into the international scene as one of the fastest bowlers of the game, Lee has been hampered by injuries. He hurt his lower back while playing against West Indies in 2000.
A year later, the pacer underwent an elbow surgery and just a couple of years after that, an abdominal strain forced him out of the tour of India. The same year, he also underwent an ankle surgery.
A second ankle surgery followed in 2004 and he also tore an abdominal muscle the same year. His ankle problem flared up again in 2007 and Lee was forced to sit out of the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies.
He had taken ill during the tour of India that year and lost almost 7kgs as a result. The injury nightmare came back to haunt him as his foot and ankle were operated upon last year.
His misery continued this year too and Lee missed the entire Ashes series because of a side strain before the suffering the elbow injury in India.
