Nathan Lyon’s Ashes series is in peril, with the veteran Australian spinner sent to hospital for scans as his teammates wrapped up victory in Adelaide on Sunday.

It comes as captain Pat Cummins revealed he is doubtful for the Boxing Day Test, which starts in just five days’ time.

Lyon was injured while fielding a ball in the deep on the fourth morning at Adelaide Oval and was swiftly ruled out of the final stages of the match.

But there is a strong chance he could miss the final two Test matches in Melbourne and Sydney across the next two weeks.

A final call on Lyon’s fitness will wait until after doctors receive the results of scans he had on Sunday, but Cummins said the sight of the champion spinner on crutches after playing “doesn’t bode well for playing a Test a week away”.

“It doesn’t look great,” he said.

“Gaz is pretty close to irreplaceable. The ability to take breakthroughs but also control an innings is really important.

“But we have got some guys who have already had a taste of international cricket around the traps, other guys have performed really well in domestic cricket.

“It’s been one of the benefits actually of the Sri Lankan tour and the West Indies and a couple of these tours where we take a couple of spinners.

“There are guys that can step in and you feel like it’s not going to be too overwhelming for them.”

It means gun West Australian off-spinner Corey Rocchiccioli has rocketed into contention for a dream Boxing Day debut in place of Lyon.

The 28-year-old has been the Sheffield Shield’s top performing spinner for the past four seasons, but has been overlooked for Queensland left-armer Matt Kuhnemann and Victoria’s Todd Murphy on tours of the sub-continent in recent years.

Rocchiccioli has taken 20 wickets at an average of 28.20 in the first-class competition this season.

Queensland leg-spinner Mitchell Swepson is the only slow bowler with more wickets, although his selection would mark a significant change for Australia’s bowling attack.

Lyon was left out of Australia’ second-Test victory in Brisbane for extra seamer Michael Neser, as he was during the final match of the mid-year tour of the West Indies.

The 38-year-old — who last week became Australia’s second-greatest Test wicket-taker of all-time — also missed the end of the 2023 drawn Ashes series in England.

Murphy replaced Lyon in that series and will come into strong consideration on his home ground in Melbourne. He has taken 10 wickets from four matches this season at an average of 23.70.

Rocchiccioli does not hold a Big Bash League contract but has remained in Perth and is training with Perth Scorchers.

Cummins played his first match of the series in Adelaide after missing Perth and Brisbane in the final stages of his recovery from a stress injury in his back.

He revealed he is unlikely to play in Melbourne now Australia has sealed an early series victory, but could play in Sydney.

Fit-again West Australian Jhye Richardson will come into contention to replace Cummins in Melbourne, alongside Brendan Doggett after he played the first two Test of the series and Michael Neser, who starred with the pink-ball in Brisbane.

“As for the rest of the series, we’ll wait and see. We had a pretty aggressive build-up knowing there was an Ashes there to be won and we thought it was worth it,” Cummins said.

“Now that the series has been won, there might be a sense of ‘job’s done and let’s sort of reassess the risk’.

“We’ll work it out over the next couple of days, I doubt I’ll play Melbourne and then we’ll have a chat about Sydney.”

Australian selectors will also have a call to make on the middle-order, with Steve Smith expected to be fit to return after missing the third Test with illness. Usman Khawaja was recalled and made 82 and 40 across two knocks.