Australia is formulating plans to revamp and revive its bowling attack ahead of the third Ashes Test - with Brett Lee doubtful and Mitchell Johnson downbeat.
The 115-run loss at Lord's, which gave England a 1-0 lead in the series, has placed the spotlight on the tourists' bowling attack.
Lee, 32, missed the first two Tests after incurring a side strain earlier in the tour and has not bowled since, while Johnson was woefully off colour at Lord's where his match figures were 3-200.
Australia, whose players have been given two days off after the loss, faces Northamptonshire in a tour match starting on Friday, a fixture in which it hopes to field both men.
But, of Lee, coach Tim Nielsen cautiously said: "We've got to be careful we don't go down the wrong path, we've got three Tests left in this series and that's a lot of cricket."
"We just need to make sure that we don't panic and rush him back too quickly with the result being that he's not quite right and puts himself out for the rest of the series."
"We need to give him every chance we possibly can to be right, and have an impact at his best when he is right."
"I will sit down with the medical team and have a bit of a chat about how much we think we need to get into him and whether it is actually going to progress to the stage where he could play in the third Test."
"My feeling is that if it's not going to mean that he will be able to play in the third Test we'll have to be really careful about rushing him back."
Lee has not played a five-dayer for Australia since the Boxing Day Test defeat to South Africa over the winter.
He displayed his credentials for a return with six first-innings wickets against England Lions last month but suffered discomfort in his ribs as a by-product.
Without playing in a competitive environment beforehand it is now hard to see how Australia could take a fitness gamble on the 76-Test veteran next week - although there is the potential to simulate a match situation in practice if necessary.
Nielsen confirmed: "The injury that he has is a bowling-specific injury and history shows if you have those injuries again it tends to be six, eight, 10 weeks before they come right, if you actually re-tear the side."
"Two, three, four overs in the nets is probably not enough to prove that he is right to go."
"If he had to bowl say 11 overs in a row, like Andrew Flintoff did yesterday, to win a Test match for us, we would want to be comfortable that he is strong and fit enough and able to do it."
Left-armer Johnson, whose batting impressed more than his bowling at Lord's, nevertheless claimed his 100th Test wicket in his 23rd appearance, exactly the same number in which greats Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne reached the landmark.
The 27-year-old will now spend time with former England bowling coach Troy Cooley in a bid to get his mind and body right for Birmingham.
"Most importantly we need to keep things in perspective," said Nielsen. "He's had a brilliant two years, he's done nothing but improve in every Test since then, we're not hiding from the fact that he didn't have a brilliant Test here, but he got better as the Test went on, which was pleasing."
"He's been too good for us to think 'oh, he's not going to play at Edgbaston'."
Johnson, battling with his low-slung action out in the middle, appeared to lose belief and suggestions from down under are that he is the archetypal 'confidence player'.
But Nielsen responded: "We all are, it's silly to suggest that there's anybody who is not driven by confidence or not feeling good about themselves."
"We're working with Ricky Ponting at times because he feels that he's not hitting the ball well and his confidence takes a jolt."
"But younger players, especially in an Ashes series if things don't start well then their confidence does take a hit and that hurts them."
"So we'll be working hard to get him thinking well and back on track."
Stuart Clark, the leading wicket-taker in Australia's 2006-07 Ashes romp, will almost certainly play at Northampton and is being tipped for a Test return.
Opening batsman Phillip Hughes' lack of form may also be a concern, although their back-up batsman is all-rounder Shane Watson, whose experience of going in first is limited primarily to one-day cricket.