Flintoff was fit for Headingley - agent

Andrew Chandler said the England management were unwilling to gamble on the 31-year-old's fitness, who will see a knee specialist on Monday, after he failed to allay fears over a niggling knee injury in net sessions leading up to the match.

"I've never seen anybody as low as Flintoff was on Thursday night when he was told he would not be selected," Chandler told The Times. "He told them that he was fit enough to get through, that he felt no different to how he felt at Edgbaston and that he could get through and do his bit. They didn't want him."

He added: "He was prepared to do whatever it takes, was prepared to put whatever needed to be put into his knee.

"The whole point of announcing his retirement when he did was to clear his head and prepare to do whatever needed to be done to play the final Test matches of his career.

"He just didn't see it coming. He wanted to play and they didn't want him, and he didn't see that coming at all."

Chandler believes the net sessions ahead of the fourth Test did not give an accurate reading of how Flintoff's injury would have reacted in a competitive environment.

"What they didn't take into account during Thursday's practice was that there was no adrenalin," he said. "That was why he looked as though he was struggling so much and why he became so much worse on the final day at Edgbaston, when it was clear the game could not be won.

"He was hurting at Lord's but the adrenalin got him through. It would have got him through this week as well.

"His presence would certainly have lifted the crowd and the team, because without him they don't have much inspiration."