Brett Lee's back. It has been a phrase to sadden or gladden, depending on the context.
Uttered in the days before Christmas, it caused chins to be rubbed below furrowing brows. Hmm, Brett Lee's back ... But Brett Lee's back, and that is cause for joy among Australian cricket fans in general, and the thousands who will flock to the MCG on Sunday, in particular.
Lee is expected to bowl in his first international at the MCG in almost a year when Australia plays Zimbabwe in a day-nighter.
His return could not have been more timely. The series may be triangular, but it appears to have only one side to it, and the eight remaining matches before the finals present a barren prospect.
The injection of the world's fastest bowler will at least offer a worthwhile distraction between Mexican waves, naked ground invasions and bouncing beach balls as Australia sets about securing an undefeated summer.
Lee's most recent appearance in Melbourne lasted only a matter of hours, when he arrived on the Saturday before the Boxing Day Test and was soon on a plane home after failing a fitness examination.
Scans three weeks earlier had detected warning signs of stress fractures in his lower back, forcing him out of the third Test against the West Indies in Adelaide. Team medical staff then considered he needed more rest and ruled him out of the Melbourne and Sydney Tests.
He arrives this time having emerged from his comeback match against the West Indies in Brisbane last Sunday with his fitness intact.
The 24-year-old pulled up stiff, sore and encouraged, happy that his back had held up well in his seven-over stint.
Even so, all moving parts did not combine as smoothly as usual, and Lee struggled with his rhythm on a steamy Brisbane day, bowling five no-balls and a wide for 1/40.
"I think the heat cost me a little bit," he said at Melbourne airport yesterday. "Myself and Glenn (McGrath) were actually struggling after a couple of overs because it was so hot out there.
"It's just one of those things where you can train as much as you want but it's very hard to get your match fitness if you haven't played for seven or eight weeks.
"The first spell felt good but when I came back for the second spell it felt a little bit stiff. It took a while to warm up again.
"I was speaking to a lot of the medical staff and they reckon it's just because I haven't bowled for a couple of weeks."
He was rested from the match against the West Indies in Sydney on Wednesday night but feels confident of playing on Sunday.
Lee, who has taken 35 wickets in his 21 one-day internationals, said he was able to put the threat of injury out of his mind in Brisbane and was bowling uninhibited.
"I'm just trying not to worry about it because I know that I've had all these scans and I know the back's right. I just have to back myself."
Backing himself and entertaining the crowd on Sunday will be another resurgent blond match-winner, Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne.
Warne has impressed in his three internationals since returning from a finger injury, and on Wednesday night at the SCG he revelled in his joust with old rival Brian Lara.
Warne's first head-to-head battle with Lara this summer was an intriguing contest. The West Indies left-hander made an unbeaten 116 in a one-man victory mission frustrated by rain.
Warne took three wickets but conceded 62 runs, 40 of them from Lara's bat, in his 10-over spell. He said he enjoyed every minute of it.
"Obviously I've bowled to him a lot over the years, and he's got a few hundreds and two-hundreds, and I've got him out a few times," Warne said.
"But last night I thought it was an enjoyable game and it was good fun bowling to him."
- MARK FULLER