Cash-strapped Gloucestershire are on the verge of the surprise signing of Australia’s Cameron Green for a County Championship stint this summer.

All-rounder Green is on the hunt for a first spell in county cricket as he nears a comeback from a stress fracture of the back which required surgery and ruled him out of Australia’s epic Test series win over India.

Since he last played on the white-ball tour of England in September, Green has undergone surgery on his back injury in New Zealand. But he is nearing a return and it is hoped that he could make a comeback in the Sheffield Shield next month.

If that goes well, Cricket Australia look set to sanction a spell in the Championship, likely playing only as a batsman. Green would be keen to prove his fitness for the World Test Championship final against South Africa at Lord’s in July. It will also help him build towards next winter’s Ashes.

Gloucestershire have emerged as a surprising destination for Green. They are in Division Two and have endured some significant financial difficulties in recent years. But they have lost another Australian international, Beau Webster, to Warwickshire, and the former Pakistan Test spinner Zafar Gohar, who will play for Middlesex as a local player next summer.

Green is a Western Australia team-mate of Cameron Bancroft, who will return to Gloucestershire this summer and is considered a candidate to replace Graeme van Buuren as captain. The deal for Green is not finalised, but likely to happen once he proves his fitness.

Australian all-rounders are in demand with English counties this summer. Will Sutherland was signed for a short stint by Yorkshire and Hampshire are lining up New South Welshman Jack Edwards following the red-ball retirement of James Vince and Mohammad Abbas’s departure for Nottinghamshire.