Flintoff may have played his last Test

The dismal prospect of Andrew Flintoff's premature retirement from Test cricket

seems a degree or two closer today with the news that England are already planning for life without him.

Paul Collingwood and his one-day squad

fly to Sri Lanka tomorrow minus their

talismanic all-rounder, who is already

back in England for more treatment on

his troublesome ankle.

And before he left with them, chairman

of selectors David Graveney gave the first

admission from within the camp that

hopes of Flintoff ever again playing a

major role in Test cricket may be based

only on what he calls "ultimate optimism".

Flintoff has not yet been ruled out of the

Sri Lanka Test series from mid-November

until just before Christmas but Graveney

conceded: "It would be a massive blow to

the England team, or for any side, to lose a

world-class player like Freddie. But

watching him on the night of our last

World Twenty20 match against India you

could see he was very frustrated.

"When I return to England after the

first one-day

international against

Sri Lanka my first

objective will be to

meet with Michael

Vaughan and digest

what we know on the

Test squad.

"There will be an

up-to-date report

about the state of

Andrew's ankle by then, but obviously you'd have to say it's

one thing bowling four overs in a

Twenty20 match, another thing bowling

10 overs in a one-day international and

another thing playing in a Test match.

"I don't want to alarm everybody, but we

need to know that he could do that before

pencilling him in. In previous years we've

taken people on tour who aren't fully fit

and that has proved to be a mistake."

Asked if England should now start

building a side without Flintoff, Graveney

insisted: "Maybe I'm perceived to be the

ultimate optimist but I don't believe we

have reached that point yet."

With no 'live' county cricket left for him

to test out his thrice-operated-on left

ankle, the best Graveney could suggest

was to simulate match conditions in

indoor nets.

He suggested Flintoff should

bowl three five-over spells on consecutive

days "and see how the ankle reacts".