Former captain Bill Lawry believes fast bowler Brett Lee needs a spell from cricket or Australia will risk prematurely ending his career.
Lawry was dismayed to see Lee labouring yesterday against South Africa, bowling below his fastest and most hostile, managing only 0-68 from 13 overs.
The outspoken Lawry believes Lee, who has taken 1-200 in this series, has lost too much weight after contacting a viral infection in India last month and does not have the physical strength to be a threat.
"He is just too thin. He's lost too much weight and he looks like he needs a rest to recovery from the viral attack," Lawry said.
"If he keeps going he will risk being of no use to himself or Australia and that could be the end of him.
"I think the selectors should bite the bullet and map out a plan for him. Maybe he should be rested for the remainder of this series, even the tour of South Africa, if they really want him fit and firing for the Ashes series in England.
"The selectors have had a pretty easy time of it for many years, but now the time has come for some tough decisions.
"If they keep pushing Lee, and he keeps pushing himself, I can't see how either Australia or Lee will benefit in the long run."
Lawry said Lee looked tortured in his initial four-over spell yesterday (0-27), that he appeared pale and gaunt, and was sweating profusely.
Lee did manage a brute of a delivery in his first over that struck South African skipper Graeme Smith on his painful right elbow.
"I like the start of this, it's a good sign for Brett," spin king Shane Warne said from the Channel 9 commentary box.
"This is good hostile bowling."
But he had 15 runs taken from his third over and another nine belted off the next.
"He's in trouble," Lawry said. "It's not that he is not trying.
"He is busting a gut and that's the problem. He isn't physically robust enough to be at his best and he is running himself into the ground while the opposition knows he is not the bowler he was.
"For his sake, it may be time for the selectors to just tell him to go away, not to play in the next Test, or for NSW or for anyone until he has regained weight and his strength, and is fit and keen and a weapon again.
"It would be better to make that decision now, while there is still time. Otherwise Lee may soon be regarded as a spent force and we might be looking for a new strike bowler just as we are preparing for the tour of England early next year.
"It would be smarter to blood someone on the South African tour and let Lee recover.
"If his replacement comes good, great, we will have a refreshed Lee and a new gun available for England."
The South Africans last night refused to needle Lee with coach Mickey Arthur insisting his side still respected the under-siege quick.
"There are going to be days when some guy picks up the rewards for somebody else's toils," Arthur said.
"I thought Australia as a group bowled well.
"We have got a huge amount of respect for Brett Lee. He is still running in and doing the job."
- ROD NICHOLSON