CRICKET:Australia fast bowler Brett Lee tried to remain philosophical after being ruled out of the World Cup due to an ankle injury yesterday.

The 30-year-old's dream of helping his country defend their world title in the West Indies ended after seeing a specialist in Sydney.

"I've come to the conclusion that I'm not going to be a part of the World Cup, it's a pretty hard thing to swallow, but you've just got to accept things sometimes," Lee said yesterday.

"I think now it's just a matter of letting the ankle settle down and really giving it a chance to heal up and the possibility of within two to three weeks that there might be some surgery happening just to clear out a bit of old bone floating around in the ankle."

Lee is set to be replaced in the World Cup squad by his New South Wales team-mate Stuart Clark. "I'm really happy for Stu, he's a great guy and deserves everything that comes his way. He's the type of guy that is a fantastic player, he's really good around the team."

"I'm sure he will play a major part during the World Cup and I wish him all the very best of luck."

Lee said he was not too concerned about Australia's current form slump in which they have lost five one-day matches in a row.

"It's now a matter of trying to find that form again, I'm sure it's only a game away and once you find that right sort of form again, really concentrate on our momentum going forward, then I'm sure that the Australian team will be back to where it was."

Lee said his injury, sustained during fielding practice last week in New Zealand, was far too serious to even think about playing in the latter stages of the World Cup which starts next month but goes on until the end of April.

"It's an eight-week minimum injury for people that run down the road, if you're asked to bowl a cricket ball at 150 kilometres per hour, slamming your foot down at 15 times your own body weight, it's certainly a lot more than eight weeks."

"Trying to fit that into a four-week period, the mathematics just don't work."