Crawley heads assortment of injury worries
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Your support makes all the difference.England's plans for the third Test against India at Headingley on Thursday week look likely to be disrupted by another clutch of injuries following the drawn second Test at Trent Bridge.
The most serious concern surrounds the batsman John Crawley, who has a suspected torn cartilage in his right knee, sustained while fielding yesterday. The Hampshire batsman will undergo a scan in Southampton today with the prospect of a length lay-off if the diagnosis is confirmed, possibly ruling him out for the remainder of the series.
Dominic Cork also has a knee problem, although he was able to bowl yesterday, and will have a scan tomorrow because the injury, which forced the Derbyshire captain to miss much of Friday and Saturday's play, has not responded as well as England's medical staff hoped.
There are worries, too, over the Yorkshire all-rounder Craig White, who has been feeling a side strain, and Lancashire's Andrew Flintoff, who went into the Test carrying a groin strain and, in the words of the England captain, Nasser Hussain, "needs a rest."
"It is getting to the point with Flintoff that we are being a bit unprofessional to keep playing him," Hussain said. "It wouldn't happen in any other sport. Only our long list of injuries and Freddie's exuberance has kept him in the side.
"He will have to have a rest, maybe in the last Test, or perhaps he'll miss the ICC Trophy." England were missing Andrew Caddick, Darren Gough and Simon Jones from their bowling options at Trent Bridge. Caddick will be available for Headingley, but Gough is ruled out for the rest of the season, while Marcus Trescothick's recovery from a broken thumb will exclude the opener from selection at least until the final Test.
Hussain blamed the heavy schedule of domestic and international cricket for making injuries inevitable, and welcomed the counties' decision yesterday to approve an expansion in the central contracts scheme as one route towards improvement.
"It is all starting to catch up with us a bit, but fortunately we will be getting a larger pool of players under contract," he said.
The England captain said he was disappointed that his side had not been able to force a result yesterday after having the Indians eight wickets down. "There was a chance to win if we could have got them out and left ourselves needing to score at seven or eight an over but losing 60-odd overs in the match did not help," he said.
Hussain praised the man of the match, Michael Vaughan, both for his 197 and the two wickets that he claimed from his 21 overs of off-spin in India's second innings, including the prized scalp of Sachin Tendulkar.
"He gives it a good tweak and the ball that bowled Sachin was something special," said Hussain. "He had a great match."
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