Starc hasn’t given up hope of playing in the Twenty20 World Cup but admits it’s highly unlikely.

“I’ve been rushed back before and been dropped after a game. I’ll make sure it’s 100 per cent before I play my first game,” Starc said.

The left-armer underwent ankle surgery following the inaugural day-night Test, while he is also recovering from stress fractures in the same foot.

Starc will meet with his surgeon later this week, hoping to be unshackled from the moonboot he’s still hobbling around in.

“The surgery has gone really well,” he said.

“It’s more that fracture in the foot that is holding me back.”

Starc and Cricket Australia are yet to discuss a timeframe regarding his return to action.

However, Australia start their T20 World Cup campaign in Dharamsala on March 18 and Starc is all but consigned to missing that tournament.

“It’s very unlikely [I’ll play],” he said.

“Everything would have to go perfectly, I guess, to be any chance.

“I won’t know until I start doing some more stuff on it … it’s still five or six weeks away till I’m 100 per cent running.”

Australia’s hopes of winning the T20 prize will be hurt by the 25-year-old’s absence – he was crowned player of the series during their ODI World Cup triumph last year.

Starc initially considered delaying overdue ankle surgery until the tournament finished.

The 25-year-old is glad he instead fixed what had been a source of much pain throughout a breakthrough year.

“Absolutely. I’ve played non-stop for nearly two years … I get to give the body a bit of a break,” he said.

“Get back and rebuild that strength and make sure everything is 100 per cent before I go again.”

Starc had three spurs shaved, while the operation also removed some scar tissue.

“And a big piece of bone was pulled out of the back of the ankle,” Starc explained.

Starc suspects his ankle problems may have contributed to the fractures.

“It probably was related in the fact that I was having so much strapping on my ankle to look after that,” he said.

“It probably ended up hurting my foot a bit.

Starc also pointed to the fact he bowled 43 overs on a flat WACA wicket during the second trans-Tasman Test.

“I don’t think the wicket in Perth helped my foot much, how hard it was,” he said.

-AAP