South Australian batsman Tom Cooper is nursing a small skull fracture after a bouncer from Victoria quick Shane Harwood hit him on the side of the head yesterday.

Cooper was on four when he turned his head to the short ball from Harwood, early in the Redbacks' innings during their one-day match at the MCG.

The ball hit him behind the ear and he walked unsteadily from the crease before falling to his knees. Harwood and other Victorian players rushed up to him and medical assistance was called immediately.

Cooper retired hurt and did not bat again, and went to hospital for scans.

A Cricket Victoria spokesman said the tests showed a small fracture of the left mastoid process, or the back part of the skull.

The spokesman added that Cooper had returned to the MCG and was expected to return to Adelaide today with his team-mates.

He will have another medical examination in Adelaide, but is not expected to need surgery.

South Australia's new one-day international selection Callum Ferguson continued his strong form, rescuing the Redbacks. Ferguson top scored with 89 as SA was bowled out for 200 in 47 overs after winning the toss.

* Australia is unlikely to tour Pakistan to play a five-match one-day series and a Twenty20 game because of lingering fears over security in the troubled nation, a Pakistan cricket official said yesterday.

The latest blow to Pakistan cricket follows a decision by the International Cricket Council Sunday to relocate the 2009 Champions Trophy elsewhere.

Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ijaz Butt said the Australia series was unlikely to take place in Pakistan in April after a meeting with Cricket Australia officials in Melbourne.

"It (the series) is unlikely to be played in Pakistan," Butt said. "We are discussing dates and venues, which I will let the media know when I return on Friday."

Australia has not toured Pakistan since 1998, amid concerns about players' safety in a nation beset by continuing militant violence.

Cricket Australia postponed a tour of the country in March last year after a spate of suicide bombings but agreed to reschedule the tour into two separate visits, a one-day series in 2009 and Tests in 2010.

Australia earlier refused to tour Pakistan in 2002 in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Matches were instead played in Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

In anticipation of Australia's latest refusal, the PCB had offered various venues to Australia -- the UAE, Malaysia, Ireland and England.

Sources close to the board said Pakistan would likely play three one-day matches in Abu Dhabi and two one-dayers and the Twenty20 match in Dubai.

The games will be played after Australia finishes the tour of South Africa in mid-April.

Following a meeting of the ICC board in Perth on Sunday, ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said the "safety and security environment" in Pakistan had forced a relocation of the eight-nation Champions Trophy.

The second-biggest one-day tournament in world cricket behind the World Cup, the Champions Trophy had already been delayed 12 months to September this year because of concerns over player safety.

More than 1500 people have been killed in militant attacks across Pakistan in the past 19 months and more than 1500 troops have been killed at the hands of extremists since 2002, after Islamabad joined the US-led "war on terror".