Australia Test team captain Tim Paine, on Friday, said that he is ‘extremely confident’ of making a comeback for the Ashes Test series despite undergoing an invasive neck surgery earlier this week.

A bulging disc was a cause of pain for the wicketkeeper in his neck and left arm, prompting him to have an operation.

The 36-year-old maintained that he is not confirming the upcoming Ashes as his final Test series. Although he acknowledged the fact that he is in the twilight of his international career.

“I ended up having disc replacements on C-6 and C-7, high up in the neck,” he told radio station SEN today.

“I’ll hopefully get a Shield game in for Tassie before then and hopefully be on the winning end of a third winning Ashes would be something really special.”

Talking about the risk that he took in order to play the Ashes, Paine said that the bulging disc was pressing in on the nerve canal in the spine, causing him a few issues down the left side of my body.

“We were getting to the touch-and-go stage where I either don’t get it done and take the risk that I’ll be right through the Ashes, or get it fixed now. So the decision came down to a number of things really,” he added.

He mentioned that he wants to keep playing cricket for Tasmania after the end of his international career so the decision to get it fixed was long-term for him.

As for the Ashes, the England cricket team expressed concerns about the quarantine and bio-security conditions they will be living under during the Ashes. This led to speculation that many England players may pull out of the tour.

However, Paine believes that the visitors are overthinking.

“The main stuff with the English guys is around the protocols with quarantine but we’re not asking them to do anything that we won’t be doing,” Paine said.

“I think if we can get them out here they’ll realise the conditions during Australia’s COVID hubs are pretty good and nothing to worry about.”