England play down Flintoff speculation

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Flintoff, 31, announced his retirement from Test cricket ahead of the Lord's contest due to his catalogue of injury problems, the latest of which has affected his right knee.

Reacting to suggestions that his latest problem would lead Flintoff to bring down the curtain in the coming days rather than at the Brit Oval next month, as scheduled, an England spokesman said: "Provided Andrew gets through this Test without any further problems we would expect him to play in the next Test, which has always been the outlook from the beginning of this match."

Flintoff did not bowl at all on Saturday but ran well between the wickets during an unbeaten 30 in England's 311 for six.

He had a trundle with his fellow bowlers on the edge of the square on Sunday morning and also played a full part in the team's warm-up, including their usual football match.

England and Wales Cricket Board chief executive David Collier has, meanwhile, revealed the announcement of Flintoff's Test retirement came as no surprise - but believes he may carry on beyond Lord's.

"Obviously there have been discussions with Freddie over some period of time," Collier told BBC Radio Five Live's Sportsweek programme.

"I don't think anybody was totally surprised (by his retirement). If you look back over Freddie's career, since he made his debut we've played something like 138 Test matches and he's missed 62 of those.

"There is so much a body can go through and Freddie's made that decision, we need to respect it."