Australia team physio Alex Kountouris is hopeful that captain Michael Clarke will return to fitness for the World Cup in February.

The 33-year-old underwent surgery on a hamstring injury that forced him out of the Test series against India.

While the recovery period tends to be a number of months, the Australian medical staff have placed the World Cup, which takes place on home turf and in New Zealand, as a "goal" for the batsman.

"Our aim is for him to play in the World Cup," ESPN quotes Kountouris as saying. "That'll be the goal. He's had the surgery and he's going to do the rehab with that intent but we'll only know that in the coming weeks when we know how he's recovering and progressing through the rehab.

"The rehab is dependent on how he progresses from each stage. There's different goals and one day post-injury there's no magic number that ends the rehab. He'll just have to progress through each stage."

After suffering the injury, Clarke admitted his fears of not playing again.