Australia captain Ricky Ponting has strongly intimated veteran paceman Brett Lee will not play in the fourth Test starting at Headingley on Friday night.
Lee appears destined to be overlooked despite being convinced that a week of bowling in the nets was enough for him to play a Test without a game under his belt for more than a month.
The veteran paceman again bowled strongly on Thursday, his ninth consecutive day of bowling, but it appears it will not be enough to prove he can withstand the rigours of a five-day game.
Although Lee's assessment of his fitness will be taken into consideration, selectors are wary of a repeat of last summer's Boxing Day Test.
The 32-year-old carried an ankle injury into the game - the last of Lee's 76 Tests - and was unavailable for the third day.
Lee impressed with his pace on Wednesday but his ability to bowl long spells repeatedly remains unknown.
"I'm sure what the selectors will be thinking about right at the moment is if he has done enough bowling at full speed to warrant selection in a Test match," Ponting said.
"As we know it's not just one day of bowling, it could be two or three days of successive bowling at 100 percent. That's what they'll be tossing up this afternoon."
"That's where we have to listen to what he has to say about how he's feeling, but more importantly the selectors have to weigh everything up about where we're at in the series and if we can go in with a guy who has only bowled a couple of days at full pace."
Lee's absence would dramatically shorten the odds of Australia carrying the same attack for the third match on the trot into a game which it must win to avoid an all-or-nothing scenario at The Oval.
That would again mean the reliable Stuart Clark, Australia's leading wicket-taker from the 2006-07 series, would miss out despite Ponting admitting there had been times this series he had not been in total control in the field.
"The momentum right through the series has swung back and forward to each side and no side has been able to grab it and run with it for extended periods of time," Ponting said.
"The guys that we've picked we're showing very good faith in and they've done a great job for us in South Africa only a few months ago."
"So we know it's there within them and we've know they've got the skills and the mental abilities to be able to perform well for us at Test level."
"Let's not forget for us to win this game we've got to take 20 wickets. That's going to be a big focus for us as well."
The prospect of playing a four-prong pace attack remained on the cards but Ponting appeared cooler to the idea on Thursday than he was a day earlier.