Rogers still suffering from dizziness

Chris Rogers is still experiencing dizzy spells and will undergo further tests and treatment in London after he was deemed unready to travel to join the Ashes squad in Derby on Wednesday.

Australia's plans for the third Test in Birmingham now appear less than certain, with Rogers running out of time to recover fully from the after-effects of a blow he suffered above the right ear when trying to evade a bouncer from James Anderson on day two of the Lord's Test.

While doctors have ruled out concussion as the source of the dizzy spells, Rogers' occasional losses of balance have continued after he first became distressed when at the non-striker's end on the fourth and final morning of the match on Sunday. Australia's team doctor Peter Brukner described Rogers' injury as "damage to the vestibular apparatus" near the ear.

There is now the possibility that he will have to be replaced for the Edgbaston Test, with Shaun Marsh the clear candidate to do so after standing in for Rogers during the earlier tour of the West Indies. Rogers missed both Caribbean Test matches after suffering a blow to the head from the Dominican net bowler Anderson Burton, and was relieved to know concussion had been ruled out in this case.

"We took him to have an MRI scan on Sunday and the MRI was fine," Brukner said. "We also got another scan there because sometimes you can actually have a small fracture associated with that injury, we had a specific scan, a CT scan, and that ruled out the fracture. We've ruled out brain, we ruled out a fracture, so we were left with the damage to the vestibular apparatus.

"Today we took him to see a professor in London, who is an expert in the area of vestibular and balance. She also confirmed that she thought that was the cause of his symptoms, damage to that balance area. She's ordered some more tests, which are basically balance tests - there are different components of the vestibular and balance system. There's various tests that can identify which of these components is working and which one is damaged.

"He'll have a series of tests tomorrow in London. He'll have one further test on Friday, to test the nerve to that area and then he'll be reviewed by this professor on Friday afternoon. He'll also have some treatment, there's a physiotherapist who specialises in this area who is going to see him on Friday. There are various techniques they can use to help resolve some of these issues.

"He seems to be improving very steadily and it's a little bit early to say what's going to happen. But if he continues to improve the way he does, he should be back playing cricket fairly soon. But as to exactly when, we can't say. At this stage we certainly haven't ruled him out of next week's Test, it's just a matter of seeing how he goes over the next 48 hours."

Brukner said that Rogers breathed an audible sigh of relief that concussion had been ruled out, for the consequences of such a diagnosis would likely have brought his tour and international career to an abrupt end. For now, though, he must wait for the current symptoms to subside.

"Obviously he's relieved it's not a concussion injury. I think it's fair to say that was a concern he had and we all had, given his recent history and so on," Brukner said. "But that has certainly been ruled out. Obviously it's a similar mechanism and he's been hit in both cases, but it's a completely different injury. It should resolve and there's no reason to think there will be any ongoing issues with this balance problem. That's about all we know.

"He's basically resting in his room, reading his Kindle. He's just taking it easy for a couple of days. You manage this really similarly to the way you manage a concussion, you basically wait until the symptoms have resolved and once the symptoms have resolved, you start increasing the activity."

Brukner had given a more positive update earlier in the week, but Rogers' continued suffering of symptoms leaves a decreasing amount of time for a full recovery in time for Birmingham.