Australia's cricketers, already soul-searching after successive losses to England in a Twenty20 fixture and county side Somerset in a one-day match, have been rocked by an injury to fast bowler Brett Lee.
The New South Wales paceman was forced to leave the field after bowling just four overs during the Australians' four-wicket loss to Somerset overnight.
Captain Ricky Ponting said Lee's injury was a major concern.
"He said the second last ball of his spell that he bowled he felt a really sharp pain in the back of his shoulder," Ponting said.
"I knew something was wrong the last ball of the spell he bowled - I ran straight to him to see how he was and he knew he was in a little bit of trouble then.
"That's about where it is though - we don't know any more. I think he's going to have scans on it at some stage so we'll know exactly what's wrong."
Australia slumped to their second consecutive tour loss when Somerset easily reeled in the tourists' 50 over total of 342, thanks to centuries by international openers Graeme Smith and Sanath Jayasuriya.
The loss comes hard on the heels of England's 100-run thrashing of the Australians in the Twenty20 fixture earlier in the week.
In the wake of the defeat, Ponting said the Australians would have a "good, hard look" at themselves after their performances. "And we'll do that - we'll do that tomorrow. We'll have a good talk about it all and get things out in the open and see where we can improve," he said.
A clearly annoyed Ponting told the media after that match that he was not satisfied with Australia's total of 5 for 342, but reserved his most scathing criticism for his bowlers.
"I think we could have got a lot more than 340 today had other guys batted on. But I was angry with the second part of the game. The bowling and the fielding was what made me pretty angry," he said.
"The other guys up in the rooms are feeling exactly the same as me - it's not just the captain, it's the bowlers who feel pretty bad about what's happened for their part as well.
"I know they'll go away and think about it and rectify it for the next game."
Ponting dismissed suggestions that Smith and Jayasuriya had not allowed Australia's bowlers to execute their plans.
"It wasn't that they [the batsmen] didn't allow us to do it, we just didn't change up what we were doing," he said.
"If you have a look at a lot of the shots they played, they were exactly the same balls they were hitting all the time. The length didn't change, the line didn't change - the ball was just in the perfect hitting zone for them every time.
"It was pretty apparent after eight or 10 overs that that was the way they were going to play. They were going to be very aggressive and have a crack at pretty much everything and we just didn't do anything different."
When asked if that was the bowlers' fault, Ponting replied: "You tell me. Who's bowling the ball?"
He also dismissed the notion that the waywardness was down to rustiness.
"Your brain's not rusty," he said. "You still know what's right and what's not. I don't know if it was the execution of what they were trying to do or if the thought process was just wrong."
The captian said the decision that he and Matthew Hayden to retire once they had passed 50 was chiefly his, but had been made after consultation with Hayden and coach John Buchanan in order to give other batters - chiefly Michael Clarke and Michael Hussey - some time in the middle.
It achieved that end with both players posting half centuries.