Australian opener Matthew Hayden has rated himself on track to return for the ICC Champions Trophy as cricket chiefs prepare for a call on the tournament's staging in Pakistan.
Hayden today was upbeat about a slow recovery from ankle tendonitis and expected to play in the biennial tournament which he desperately wants to add to a long list of career highlights.
Australia will defend their title if the two-week Champions Trophy is staged in September but the big Queenslander is aiming to win his first after missing the 2006 triumph in India.
The International Cricket Council's executive board will decide in the next three days whether to move the tournament away from strife-torn Pakistan after admitting they couldn't guarantee players' safety.
Even if the ICC vote to play the tournament in Pakistan, Australia's world champions are no certainty of participating.
Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers Association will be briefed by security experts before making the final decision.
With Queensland teammates Andrew Symonds and Shane Watson voicing contrasting views of touring, Hayden backed CA and the ACA to make the correct call in the same manner they opted against touring Pakistan in March-April this year.
"It's certainly one I want to be involved in if my safety is not compromised," he said.
"I think the process is an important one in this.
"Like the last time we went there, we had a full security briefing independent of all parties and we at that point decided it wasn't safe to travel there and Cricket Australia and the ACA supported the players on that so the tour didn't proceed.
"Hopefully it doesn't come to that, we've got the premier tournament, with the exception of the World Cup, around the corner and Australia has traditionally never played well at it.
"It's going to be disappointing if the tournament gets wiped all together."
Sri Lanka is a stand-by venue if Pakistan is given the red light but there are also reported concerns about violence on the small island.
Hayden missed the entire West Indies tour due his chronic Achilles problem and is no certainty to be ready for Australia's next international competition, three one-dayers against Bangladesh in Darwin from August 30 to September 6.
Hayden hinted he would be prepared to forego the Darwin series to be fit to go at the Champions Trophy.
"Both of those tournaments are a target for me," he said. "I would have to say I am on track for both of those tournaments."
Hayden had scans last week which cleared him of muscular damage but he's been told to tone down his rehab.
"I was trying to go from one level to another level (with recovery) and I just wasn't getting there," said the 36-year-old.
"I've had to back off, it's been incredibly frustrating as an athlete to back off and watch the amount of cricket I have done."
But he's in no mood to drop Twenty20 or one-day cricket from his calendar to nurse his way through to next year's Ashes series in England.
"The best players in the world play all forms of the game. In my view I want to give myself a chance to do that," he said.
