Cummins missed the Test tour of Sri Lanka due to the birth of his second child but he has also been nursing an ankle issue that had flared up after a heavily workload in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Australia’s ODI players who are not on the Test tour are due to fly out to Sri Lanka on Thursday but McDonald revealed on Wednesday morning that Cummins is unlikely to be among them.
“Pat Cummins hasn’t been able to resume any type of bowling so he’s heavily unlikely, so that would mean that we do need a captain,” McDonald told SEN.
“Steve Smith and Travis Head are the two that we’ve been having conversations with while we’ve been building out that Champions Trophy team along with Pat back home. They’ll be the two that we look at for that leadership post.
“They’re the two obvious ones. Steve has done a great job here in the Test match. He’s done some good work in One-Day International cricket across the journey as well. So it’s between those two.
“But as I said, Patty is hugely unlikely which is a bit of shame and we’ve also got Josh Hazlewood who is battling at the moment. So that medical information will land over the next couple of days and we’ll be able to shore that up and let everyone know the direction.”
Hazlewood is understood to be battling a hip issue after recovering from the side and calf injuries that saw him miss three of the five Tests against India and the Test tour of Sri Lanka.
Australia’s selectors will have a challenge cobbling an XI together for the first ODI against Sri Lanka on February 12 given there is only one travel day scheduled between the fifth day on the second Test and the first ODI, with ODI squad members Head, Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Inglis, Alex Carey and Mitchell Starc all set to play in the Test match. But there may be extra days to recover if the Test ends quickly on a surface that already appears much drier than the previous one.
