The 26-year-old right-armer has missed Otago’s last two first-class games and he has been ruled out for the Volts’ match against Northern Districts beginning in Alexandra on Monday.
He re-injured his troublesome hamstring on Thursday during a fitness test and will be sidelined for a further two weeks.
There was some good news on the injury front, however. Jake Gibson has returned from a hamstring complaint and Jacob Duffy is over the illness which prevented him travelling to Nelson for the 161-run win against Central Districts last week.
Otago coach Dion Ebrahim said Rae tweaked his hamstring during the final stages of his fitness test.
‘‘Unfortunately that rules him out and he is pretty gutted.
‘‘It is probably going to be at least two weeks [out]. But I guess the saving grace is we are going into the white ball season soon, so at least the loading will be lighter and he won’t need to get through 25 overs a day.’’
Rae missed the entire 2018-19 season with a shoulder injury and has had other stints on the sideline.
‘‘It is disappointing for him.
‘‘He has had a great couple of years. He was involved with the New Zealand winter training squad. He was on standby for the England series.
‘‘But we are making sure he has got all the right support to get him back on the park as soon as possible.’’
Matt Bacon and Tommy Clout drop out of the 12 to make room for the return of Duffy and Gibson.
Otago A will play Canterbury A in a one-dayer in Rangiora on Monday and on Wednesday, so Bacon will join the likes of Josh Finnie and Neil Broom in a strong Otago A line-up.
The Volts actually spent the week preparing for white ball cricket. Its Super Smash campaign gets under way with a home fixture against Central Districts on November 28.
The Northern Districts team was unavailable yesterday but Ebrahim is not expecting many changes from the side which lost to Canterbury by two wickets at Bay Oval this week.
Otago’s top order has hit some strong early season from. Nick Kelly (333 runs at an average of 83.25), Hamish Rutherford (330 at 66.00) and Mitchell Renwick (282 at 56.40) are among the leading scorers in the competition, while Travis Muller is Otago’s leading wicket-taker so far with 11 wickets at 26.81.
Ebrahim expects the surface at Molyneux Park will provide batter-friendly conditions but hopes it will break up enough to allow spin to become a factor on the last day.
Spinners Michael Rippon and Anaru Kitchen nabbed five fourth-innings wickets between them to help the Volts ease to a comfortable win against the Stags. They could be key again.
