Stokes was stood down by the England and Wales Cricket Board and did not fly out to Australia with the England squad last month pending investigations after his part in a wild brawl outside a nightclub in Bristol in late September.

It was reported in British newspaper The Telegraph that police will decide this week if Stokes, who has been under investigation, would be charged.

Should Stokes be cleared, it could pave the way for the star player to take part in England's bid to retain the urn though he would likely still face disciplinary action from his board.

England great Ian Botham said in an interview he expected Stokes to take part in the Ashes. The all-rounder recently posted videos of himself bowling in the nets.

Stokes is likely to receive a red-hot reception from Australian fans should he make it to these shores.

Alyssa Healy, the wicketkeeper in Australia's female team and the wife of pace ace Mitchell Starc, responded to rumours of Stokes' clearance by describing it as a "disgrace" on Twitter.

Already the underdogs this summer, England's stocks dipped further when the Stokes controversy erupted but his return would give them a boost after an underwhelming lead up, particularly with the ball.

Joe Root's men drew their final tour game - against the CA XI - but youngsters Jason Sangha and Matt Short plundered centuries against them in Townsville.

Stokes is one of few match winners in England's inexperienced 16-man touring party, which includes only five players who have featured in a Test in Australia.

Stokes was enjoying arguably his finest year in Test cricket before the incident, averaging 44 with the bat and 31 with the ball.

"You're always planning for every player, even though he's not in the squad," Lehmann said.

"We'll just wait and see what happens with ECB and the courts. We can't worry about it at the moment. They haven't got him here, so they can't miss him.

"They've got their squad that they think can win the Ashes. For us it's more of a case of dealing with the squad they've got here.

"He's obviously a high-quality player. That's up to them."

The England squad arrived in Brisbane on Sunday with wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow unsure about Stokes' availability.

"You know far more about that than I do. I'm sure you guys are on the phone to everyone every day about it," Bairstow said at a press conference. "Look, it'd be amazing if Stokesy comes out here. I'm sure you guys would all think the same. He's a fantastic cricketer. We don't know what's going on at the moment, that's completely out of our hands and until that's resolved we actually don't know what is going to happen.

"But I'm sure it will get resolved sooner rather than later, we hope, because at the end of the day we want the best cricketers playing in the Ashes don't we, and that's the series we want. We don't want to see guys not playing and the competition levels and the standard going down due to that."