Flintoff eyes summer Test return

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Flintoff had seemed set to return for the series against New Zealand which starts on Thursday after making good progress in his recovery from a fourth operation on his troublesome ankle last autumn, but suffered an untimely side strain playing for Lancashire last week.

"I still feel my best years are in front of me", the 30-year-old told the Wisden Cricketer. "That's not just something I say in interviews, I definitely believe it."

He added: "Everybody is always going to ask about my ankle and how I'm going on but I've just been regarding myself as a fit player.

"Even when I was getting ready to go to Dubai with the Lancashire lads for our pre-season tour the operation had been that long ago that I'd almost forgotten it.

"I know it's a cliche but let's just take it day by day. I've felt OK in the early stages after my previous operations and I'd be lying if I said there wasn't a niggling little bit of doubt in the back of my mind somewhere; after four operations I think that is inevitable.

"But I just hope that in July, with 150 or 200 overs under my belt, I will still be all right."

Flintoff has not been troubled by the ankle this season and feels his Dutch surgeon Niek van Dijk, found after an exhaustive worldwide search, has done a fine job.

He added: "He went into the joint and found things wrong. He removed some bone fragments that were deeply embedded and also did some work on the tendon. Having seen what the surgeon took out, I was confident the ankle was going to be fine.

"There has been something clinically wrong with my ankle and hopefully, having had this operation, the problem has been eradicated."