Concerns over Bernard Tomic's fitness have complicated Pat Rafter's thinking ahead of Australia's Davis Cup World Group playoff with Uzbekistan next week.
Rafter will name his squad on Tuesday for the three-day grasscourt tie starting in Perth on Friday week, with Tomic in extreme doubt after quitting the US Open with a hip injury.
The 21-year-old had been a certain selection alongside Lleyton Hewitt and Nick Kyrgios, but his likely unavailability has presented Rafter with a doubles dilemma.
If Tomic had played, the skipper could have freed up Hewitt to team with regular Cup partner Chris Guccione for the key day-two doubles in addition to spearheading the singles.
Hewitt, though, won't carry the full load of two singles and a doubles match, so Tomic's potential absence opens the door for big-serving Sam Groth to earn a maiden call-up.
In addition to his breakthrough singles win at the US Open last week, Groth and Guccione have won six doubles titles in 2014 - mostly on the secondary Challenger Tour - but lost to the second seeds in the first round at Flushing Meadows.
As ever, the doubles rubber will be pivotal, especially with Uzbekistan's No.1 singles player, world No.44 Denis Istomin, currently ranked higher than most of the Australian players.
Uzbekistan also have a dangerous doubles exponent in Farrakh Dustov, a tall timber who serves bombs in the same fashion as Groth, Guccione and Kyrgios.
Young gun Thanasi Kokkinakis is also in the mix for Australia and is likely to be included in Rafter's extended squad.
If Tomic is out, Rafter is expected to go with Hewitt, Kyrgios and two from Groth, Guccione and Kokkinakis to make up his four-man team.
The only certainty is Kyrgios will lead the singles assault with Hewitt following his show-stopping run to the third round in New York.
"It's an important tie for us and he's obviously a very important member for us in the team," said Cup coach and Kyrgios' travelling mentor Josh Eagle.
"Given his form on grass at Wimbledon, we're hoping he can bring that sort of form to Perth as well."
Kyrgios flew straight home to Canberra after his third-round Open loss on Saturday night to Spaniard Tommy Robredo.
"It is a big Davis Cup tie, but I am not going to think about that for the next couple of days," the teenager said.
"I am just going to go home, soak it up for a couple of days and then do what I have to do at Davis Cup."
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