Josh Hazlewood won’t play a part in The Ashes, with the pace star officially ruled out for the remainder of the series following a fresh injury setback.

The 34-year-old suffered an Achilles injury last week, when he was attempting to make a comeback from the hamstring issue that had kept him out of the opening two Tests of the series.

Australian coach Andrew McDonald confirmed on Tuesday that Hazlewood would not feature in any of the three remaining Tests, with his focus to now shift to the T20 World Cup campaign that begins next February.

“He will be out of the series and his preparation will then shift towards the (2026 T20) World Cup, which is an incredibly important campaign for us but unfortunately Josh won’t be a part of the Ashes,” McDonald said.

“It’s really flat for him. A couple of setbacks we didn’t see coming. We thought he’d play a huge part in the series. We really feel for him that he won’t get that opportunity.”

It comes after Hazlewood missed the entire Test tour of Sri Lanka earlier this year and played only two of a possible five Tests in last summer’s home series against India.

The veteran sits ninth on Australia’s all-time Test wicket-taking list, and is five wickets away from becoming the 41st player across all countries to reach the Test 300-wicket mark.

His absence means that by the time The Ashes is complete, Australia’s wildly successful bowling quartet of Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon will have featured together in just three of their 13 most recent Tests.

Aussie skipper Cummins has recovered from a back injury and is set to make his first appearance of The Ashes in Adelaide’s Third Test, which begins next Wednesday, while fellow veteran Lyon is also likely to be recalled following his surprise omission for the pink-ball clash in Brisbane.

Confirmation of the 15-player squad is expected on Wednesday, with batter Usman Khawaja set to feature on return from his back injury.

Despite Starc’s heavy workloads with bat and ball, Australia is expected to play a full-strength bowling attack given a chance to secure a series victory.

Players will have had nine full days off in between the end of the Gabba Test and the toss in Adelaide.

“We wouldn’t be thinking about someone needing a rest there, it’s probably more so in Test match four and five,” McDonald said.

Lyon is expected to play a significant role in the attack after bowling only two overs in the first Test and being dropped for the second.

The veteran off-spinner has taken more Test wickets at Adelaide Oval than any other ground in world cricket.

“I’ll make this a headline: We still do value spin,” said McDonald, after part-timer Travis Head bowled Australia’s only over of spin in Brisbane.

“That’s the first game Nathan’s missed in Australia for a long time. Has his impact been as great as previous seasons with the surfaces that we’re playing on? Potentially not.

“(But) I think Nathan’s going to have an incredibly huge impact in the last three Test matches if you look to what he did at the MCG last year.

“When the surface became benign day three onwards, he was able to navigate through a hole.”

McDonald insisted there was nothing to patch up with Lyon, who told the Seven Network he was “absolutely filthy” about being dropped for the Gabba Test in favour of Neser.

“I don’t think ‘patch up’ are the right words, that’s probably a little bit of an overreaction,” McDonald said.

“We just value different things in the pink-ball game and unfortunately that meant that Nathan had to squeeze (out), that’s nothing to do with his skillset.

“For him to be disappointed, I understand that, I get that. I’d be disappointed if he wasn’t disappointed.”