Batsman Khawaja, 23, had been called up as standby for Clarke, who has suffered with a chronic back problem for much of his Test career and his condition flared while he was playing for New South Wales 10 days ago.
If patients do indeed forgo care as the administration intends, many would see their condition deteriorate, and they would end up requiring hospital care to fix a problem that could have been prevented in the first place.
Malnutrition is normally seen as a problem for the developing world, but Rick Wilson argues that here in Britain this costly and demoralising condition has been neglected for too long.