No Adelaide Or Perth For Freddie

The Lancashire all-rounder played in England's drawn match with Australia A in Hobart this week with a view to persuading England's management he had now fully recovered from the effects of the surgery which had previously restricted him to only one match so far on the tour.

His performance in Tasmania was scratchy, claiming 0-62 from 10 overs and scoring only 16 runs in two innings, but, more importantly, he never looked fit enough to withstand the rigours of a Test match against Australia.

That was the conclusion drawn when Nasser Hussain, who returned from Perth after witnessing the birth of second son Joel the previous evening and reported straight to coach Duncan Fletcher to receive the latest medical bulletin.

"Our general opinion is that Andrew is not fit enough to play a Test match," explained Hussain during a nets session at the Adelaide Oval.

"The management believe he's not done anything to prove his fitness for this Test and that is why he played in the Hobart match."

Flintoff was given the all-clear after his third scan in eight days and was also given a steroid injection into his groin to aid his recovery.

He has been ruled out of both the Adelaide and Perth Tests and will remain in Adelaide to work on his fitness with the one-day specialists, who are due to arrive in Australia next week, with a view to playing in the start of the triangular series at the beginning of next month.

England did receive a boost though with the news John Crawley completed a successful training session after picking up a bruised right hip in the draw with Australia A.

He ran freely during a thorough fielding session and batted in the nets at the Adelaide Oval, even shrugging off being hit on the helmet by a short delivery from Steve Harmison.

England's net session was supplemented by several members of the Academy - including Lancashire all-rounder Kyle Hogg, Surrey's Rikki Clarke and Yorkshire's Tim Bresnan.