New Zealand Cricket's operations manager and former international batsman John Reid sees no instant way forward for easing the back problems being experienced by New Zealand's bowlers.

Left-arm spin bowler Daniel Vettori and pace men Geoff Allott and Dion Nash are the latest victims of the back stresses being suffered by bowlers around the world.

A worst case scenario has it that the highly-competitive Nash may never play Test cricket again while Allott is still attempting to prove that he is over his latest injury concerns.

A complete review of injury problems, rehabilitation programmes and training schedules is to be undertaken this week between cricket personnel and medical advisors.

While back injuries have been part and parcel of faster bowling throughout the game's history, the big concern in New Zealand has to be for Vettori.

Reid acknowledged the concern that a slow bowler should have a back problem.

"Vettori is a worry. He is a spin bowler and we have to ascertain whether his injury is a reaction to the bowling he is doing or something in his training.

"There are questions we have to ask about all the bowlers and we just need to ensure we have as much information as possible," he said.

Reid discounted the build-up on indoor nets although he did concede the amount of cricket being played was probably a factor.

New Zealand was no different to other countries. Zimbabwe's Heath Streak was just back from injury; South Africa's Allan Donald had been injured while Australia's Jason Gillespie had had several injuries.

"It is a sport issue as much as a national association issue.

"It hits us harder because of our depth. It is harder for us to rotate our bowling," Reid said.

He pointed to the different nature of touring nowadays where there was so much emphasis on international matches.

"On the older tours you used to have a lot of non-international matches against counties and states but because of the economics of the situation all you are doing now is really playing a series of internationals one after the other," he said.

There were questions about bowlers resting enough after an injury so that it didn't recur while there was also the issue of players being professionals and relying on playing for income and coming back too soon as a consequence.

They were new problems that have not been part of the game before in New Zealand.

Reid didn't think the lack of first-class cricket in New Zealand in recent seasons had failed to help bowlers build up with more hard work.

"They had Conference cricket over the last few seasons so they were still getting seven or eight first-class games a year.

"It is all very frustrating because it not only adds pressure on the team but others have to take up the loads of the injured players which increases the risk to them," he said.

Reid was confident NZC was doing everything it could and pointed to the study undertaken by University of Otago sports medicine expert Dr Dave Gerrard two years ago which showed NZC had a very positive medical panel with robust protocols in place.

© CricInfo