Clarke downplayed the difficulty of motivating a team that had already lost their series for the match starting on Thursday in London, on a green-tinged pitch he predicted would produce another result.

"Obviously we can't win this series but a lot of the guys are going to come back here in four years so it's important for them to try and get another win under our belt," he said.

"I think this Test is as much about our character as anything else. We need to play with that resilience and grit and determination and really fight as hard as we possibly can. The past couple of Tests in particular have only gone two and a half days so we need to try and take this as deep as we possibly can."

Clarke declared the Australian players had an obligation to "to try and fight our backsides off and grind our way to a victory in this Test match".

His England counterpart Alastair Cook said he hoped his team could follow the lead of Australia in 2013-14, who after sealing the series in Perth went on the snare the last two Tests too.

"It would be really good for the guys who have played in this series to have memories of beating Australia going into the next series," he said.

The period between the end of this Test and the first in Bangladesh in October would, the 34-year-old predicted, herald a "big change" in Australian line-up. He and Chris Rogers will definitely be gone while Brad Haddin and Shane Watson are no longer first-choice players.

"I think the last time we've seen so many senior players leave was 2007 when we lost a lot of the greats of the game," Clarke said. "I've always said there's a lot of talent, whether it be in this group or back playing first-class cricket, and now we've just got to turn that talent into consistent performance. Guys have been waiting for their opportunity and now they are going to get it."

The Australians did not confirm their XI to face England.

The potential for them to field an unchanged bowling attack for a seventh consecutive Test, stretching back to the West Indies in June, was disrupted by Josh Hazlewood's withdrawal from the Test due to niggling problems.

Of Australia's two reserve fast-bowlers, Peter Siddle and Pat Cummins, Cummins was the more impressive last weekend in Northampton. But if the 22-year-old was chosen as a replacement it would significantly affect the composition of the attack, given Hazlewood would have been relied on to hold up an end and allow Mitch Starc and Mitch Johnson to attack.

The last time Australia fielded a three-man pace attack without a stock bowler was arguably in 1993, when Craig McDermott (now Australia's bowling coach), Merv Hughes and Jo Angel faced the West Indies at the WACA Ground.

Given all four of Australia's bowlers conceded more than four runs per over in the preceding Test, the first time that had occurred for a decade, choosing Cummins would be a risky move - but a popular one, given the excitement that has surrounded him based on his sole Test performance, in Johannesburg in 2011.

Mitch Marsh is also highly likely to return, probably at the expense of his brother Shaun in a reverse of the change that happened on the morning of the Trent Bridge Test.

England's main selection issue is whether to gamble that Jimmy Anderson has sufficiently recovered from the side strain that caused him to miss the fourth Test.

"Clearly we're not going to risk him at all. He's got to be 100 per cent right," Cook said.

ENGLAND (from): Alastair Cook (c), Adam Lyth, Ian Bell, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Moeen Ali, Stuart Broad, Mark Wood, Steve Finn, Jimmy Anderson, Adil Rashid, Liam Plunkett.
AUSTRALIA (from): Michael Clarke (c), Chris Rogers, David Warner, Steve Smith, Adam Voges, Mitch Marsh, Peter Nevill, Mitch Johnson, Mitch Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon, Pat Cummins, Shaun Marsh.