Flintoff ruled out of Twenty20 World Cup
Posted on May 27, 2009 at 21:22 | Updated May 27, 2009 at 21:43
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London: England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff was ruled out of next month's World Twenty20 tournament on Wednesday because he has not fully recovered from knee surgery.
The England and Wales Cricket Board had expected Flintoff to get over last month's operation on a meniscus tear to his right knee but has now called up Adil Rashid to replace him.
The 31-year-old Flintoff had the surgery after he pulled out of the Indian Premier League, where he had tied with England team-mate Kevin Pietersen as the most costly players in the pre-tournament auction.
The injury already ruled him out of England's recent Test and one-day series wins over West Indies.
The ECB must now decide whether to gamble on his form and fitness for the Ashes series against Australia, which starts in July. Flintoff will only have games for county side Lancashire in which to earn a place.
"We had to name Andrew in the ICC World Twenty20 15 because we hoped he would be fit," national selector Geoff Miller said, "but in reality the timescale was always optimistic.
"We have now obtained permission from ICC to name Yorkshire's Adil Rashid as a replacement. There is a lot of cricket still to play this year and it is important Andrew is fully fit for it."
Flintoff and Pietersen fetched record salaries of $1.55 million each at the IPL player auction, but both failed to live up to their billing and England routed West Indies in the one-day series without them.
The bowling of James Anderson and Stuart Broad in the limited-overs matches suggests Flintoff may not be missed at the Twenty20, which is being held in England.
"Andrew is making excellent progress and there is no swelling or pain now in the knee," ECB chief medical officer Nick Peirce said. "He has been putting in some extremely hard training with Lancashire and should start running and practicing this week.
"After discussions with his surgeon we have decided that he should continue the remainder of his rehabilitation with physio Dave Roberts, who has overseen his previous rehabilitations."
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