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Flintoff will miss second Test of West Indies series

England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff was ruled out of the second Test against the West Indies starting at Headingley today.

Officials, doubtless conscious of the need to look after the long-term health of their star player, decided against bringing paceman Flintoff back for the second match of a four-Test series after he missed the drawn series opener at Lord's with a recurrence of his longstanding left ankle problem.

A few overs in the nets at Headingley on Wednesday were all it needed for the England management to pull the plug on thoughts of Flintoff appearing at Yorkshire's headquarters, even though they'd originally planned on giving him a two-day trial.

"It was deemed that Andrew's ankle did not demonstrate sufficient improvement after his first bowling session today [Wednesday] and in order to allow the ankle to rehabilitate effectively and continue to improve it was felt the best decision was to rule him out now without a further assessment tomorrow [yesterday]," an England and Wales Cricket Board statement said.

The statement added: "Andrew will leave the England squad tonight [Wednesday] and return to Lancashire where he will continue to undergo rehabilitation and revue. He will only begin to bowl at an appropriate stage and any decision on participation in Lancashire's forthcoming county matches will be made in due course."

Without Flintoff, England opted for a four-man -- as opposed to their favoured five-man -- attack at Lord's and then found themselves a bowler light when Matthew Hoggard went off injured with a thigh problem and didn't return.

It looks as if Vaughan, who hasn't played a Test for 18 months, will come in for Owais Shah.

That still leaves England to find a replacement for Hoggard, with left-arm quick Ryan Sidebottom eyeing a second Test cap six years after his first.
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