One of the most talented all rounders ever has been dogged by injury. Time after time he has attempted to come back, but things do not look good.
At nearly 30 things do not IMO look good, if he slows down he will not be effective, just like when Botham did just that.
Even if Flintoff is declared fit, this injury has nothing to do with the knee injury he sustained earlier in the series.

None of us are doctors - but we all know his ankle has kept him out of many games - in other words we don't have to be experts to know something is wrong.

Will Flintoff be playing for England in two years time?, I hope so - but I have serious doubts.

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Ern

I suspect Flintoff will be playing again... but don't really care one way or the other: he's never been even remotely interesting as a batsman OR as a bowler (being too limited and mechanical in both trades)... and whilst he's occasionally been effective in one role or the other... he has rarely justified his presence in the Test side as he's almost invariably been played in a role that imbalances the side (weakening the batting by keeping out a genuine middle order batsman and adding largely superfluous overs of seam bowling to a side that already, as a rule, offered 3 equal or superior seamers).

In truth, he's currently missed more for his slip catching than for his bowling (which has rarely matched the best of Sidebottom let alone the best of Hoggard) or his batting (which has never looked as promising as Bopara's, Joyce's or Shah's let alone as good as Bell's, Pietersen's or Collingwood's). His ability to occasionally offer a few overs an innings of reverse swing might leave the coach thinking he'd be a good option for Sri Lanka... but any such thought would be misguided: it's entirely probably that he'd only offer that for one short spell in an innings.

The tabloids would miss him.. and the ODI side would certainly miss him (as that side NEEDS the multi-dimensional players who can bat, bowl and field)... but if his career DID end... the Test side might count it as a blessing in disguise: even when fit... he shouldn't make the first choice Test XI anyway. He adds little to a full strength squad of Cook, Strauss, Vaughan, Bell, Pietersen, Strauss, Bopara / Joyce / Shah, Collingwood, Read / Foster, Broad / Tremlett / Harmison / Rashid, Hoggard, Sidebottom, Panesar.

Like Rach said, Flintoff I think is more valuable to the ODI side than the Test side, if Flintoff recovers from this injury, we will need him in the ODIs. But in the Test squad, I can't see him being able to bowl 15-20 overs a day, and if you say "well he doesn't need to bowl that much", we may as well not have him in the side, I'd rather see an attack that have the ability to bowl lots of overs rather than Flintoff having 6 overs a day, then pulling up with yet another injury. I think he's increasingly becoming a bowler, he can't buy runs at the moment, and it doesn't look like he's going to improve.

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Frank Skinner: "You know when Glenn McGrath trod on that cricket ball? Don't you wish it would've been a landmine?"

I can't see Flintoff being fit enough to play test and one day cricket.Goodness knows what happens with him now but i wish him well in his latest fitness fight.

Looks a bit dodgy. Flintoff is a big, heavily built guy and the strain on his knees and ankles will be tremendous. Also, I suspect that after the 2005 Ashes series, Flintoff has been forced back into one or the other form of the game a bit prematurely after an injury, probably because of his image. Whether that was his own decision or he was coerced into it is a different matter.

We often say don't we that when a player has multiple operations on the same injury it never looks good. It that is is from him we should remember the spell from 2003-2005 when he was at his peak and IMO the finest allrounder in the world.

Yep the time has indeed come for someone to make the decision to retire Flintoff from one format of the game (preferably the one day stuff) in a bid to prolong his international career. I can't really see Flintoff being objective enough to make the decision himself and it needs one of Moores or Graveney to step up and grow a pair. The extra time off as well as aiding his fitness battle would allow him to try and address the decline with the bat for Lancashire by actually giving hm some time at the crease to find some form prior to international games rather than hope he miraculously finds it during the game.

I agree - this should have happened pre Ashes in 2005, playing ODI's at the end of hard test series have IMO made his ankle worse.

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Ern

Actually, that's not quite true. I am

Well Dr - would you need Amioderone for this heart condition .

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Ern