Andrew Flintoff has returned home to the UK from the IPL when he sustained a knee injury which according to the cricket news will require key hole surgery from which it is thought Flintoff would be able to recover within a 3 to 5weeks. The ECB's chief medical officer Dr. Nick Peirce has said that this is a degenerative injury that could have happened anytime and anywhere.
Hugh Morris, the ECB's managing director of cricket, was reported in the cricket news as saying, “Andrew has been extremely unlucky with injuries but if there is one saving grace it is that the injury has occurred now rather than on the eve of either the ICC World Twenty20 or the Ashes. Having the surgery now means that Flintoff should be available for both those events although he is certain to miss the Test series against the West Indies."
This injury of Flintoff’s is just the latest in a series of injuries that has dogged the all rounder over the years; so much so that this the sixth sustained by him. His frequent injuries have meant that he has missed 61 out of a possible 134 tests since his debut more than 10 years ago. Now, not only is the IPL history this year; so is the West Indies tests and possibly the one dayers as well. Kevin Pietersen has said that this is a “huge, huge blow come the summer for England.”
The British Press has not taken kindly to Flintoff having sustained this injury, which, the view seems to be has come from chasing the IPL cash, which the Australians were sensible enough to spurn. If fact it has been noted that many British players delayed the signing of their central contracts with the ECB to put pressure on the ECB so that they were permitted a larger IPL window. The general view is that Flintoff should have taken more care, which he didn’t in the pursuit of money. If Flintoff will be a loss to the England team, he will also be a loss to his Chennai super kings IPL team, for which he was acquired at a record price of $1.55 million. Seeing his performance hitherto for the Chennai team though, he may not be that much of a loss.
