Australian bowler Ryan Harris’ current knee concern is not related to excruciating pain or workload management, rather an old familiar sting that keeps interrupting his run-up.

Harris is booked in for knee surgery at the end of the three-Test series against South Africa, which starts next Wednesday in Centurion.

The 34-year-old will miss the Indian Premier League to have fragments of floating bone removed from his right knee.

Harris has little cartilage in his right knee, the legacy of previous injuries.

The resultant swelling after stumps he can manage just fine, but the jarring click he feels occasionally while tearing in is proving an annoying distraction.

“It’s not backing up (that he is worried about in South Africa), it’s more the bits and pieces that are in there and getting caught,” Harris said.

“The thing is I’ve been putting up with it for six to eight months now. I know when it comes on, so I just have to flick the knee out and move the bits and it goes away.

“I’ve done it a million times. When I’ve been running into bowl, you probably saw me pull up when it gets caught up at a certain part.

“But it’s not going to stop me from playing.”

Mitchell Johnson labelled Harris an “inspiration” for the way he has regularly pushed through the pain barrier in extending a late-blooming career, but the Queensland quick said he was no hero.

“I’m not a tough man because I do it. I do it because I want to.

“Being a fast bowler, you’re always going to have pain. There’s not a day since I’ve been 13 or 14 that I’ve woken up and haven’t been sore.”

Harris has taken 93 wickets from his 21 Tests and will be hoping to snare his 100th victim next week.

Not since Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillee in the 1970s has an Australian quick reached the milestone in 22 Tests or less.