Senior Cricket Australia official Michael Brown admits Michael Clarke is no certainty to take part in the upcoming two Test tour of New Zealand beginning next Friday.
Clarke, who returned home to deal with personal issues believed to be related to fiancee Lara Bingle's well publicised nude-photo scandal involving AFL bad boy Brendan Fevola, was named in a 14-man Test squad on Wednesday.
While confident the 28-year-old will rejoin his team-mates across the Tasman on Monday, Brown revealed there is still a chance the vice-captain will miss the upcoming tour to sort out his private life.
"I'm hoping he'll be there, but he hasn't given me a drop-dead date," Brown said.
"I'm hoping to talk and see him later today, we need to address those issues because (Chairman of selectors) Andrew (Hilditch) has a team to run, but we also respect that he needs time."
"He only just got home and we want to give him time to make the right decisions."
"There's no point in forcing any player to go back into a cricket team when he's not comfortable, because the team won't be comfortable to have him, and that's the message the captain has given me."
"Ricky (Ponting) wants Michael back 100 percent committed to cricket and that's when he wants him back.''
Quizzed on Clarke's current state of mind, a tense Brown replied: "I talked to him the past few days and talked to him last night. We obviously have a Test tour looming with the team departing Sunday and Monday and I would be hoping he'll be part of that group, but as Ricky and I discussed this morning, unless he's ready to go there's no point in going."
"We'll talk to him over the next few days and the intention to get him back for the Test matches, but time will tell."
"I told him he needs to deal with the issues and we'll be there to support him, but we do need to get to a point where we need to move forward and he needs to take these next couple of days to do that."
Meanwhile, Brown staunchly defended Clarke's decision to leave his one-day team-mates mid series on Monday night.
"His view to coming home was to deal with issues that were important to him," he said.
"I respect that and the distractions that go a long with it are no different for any cricketer or sportsman that lives in the modern era."
"We've shown a lot of compassion over the years with Nathan Bracken, Ricky Ponting and Glenn McGrath, who have all for various reasons been required to be with their partners."
"In this case we support Michael and Lara."
He added of Clarke's double life as a major celebrity: "I'm more than comfortable with the image Michael Clarke portrays to young people who play the game. He's not 100 percent responsible for developing his own image ... if you saw him in Twenty20 and way he motivates young players and what he has done for young children in the game, there aren't too many better role models."
But Brown would not be drawn on the effect the recent drama would have on his future captaincy prospects.
"That's a hypothetical question, he's vice captain and he'll continue to be vice-captain in the future," he said.
He was equally coy when asked of Bingle's future role in the Australian team.
"As I last looked Lara's not on our contract list, but that's question for Michael and Lara," he said with a smile.