Jones prepares to take final step

Simon Jones takes the final step towards his Test return on Friday, 16 months after his horrific injury on the opening day of the last Ashes series, as England begin their final warm-up match against a Vice-Chancellor's XI at the Frank Worrell ground in Kingston.

It has been a long painful road to recovery for Jones, who ruptured an anterior cruciate ligament while attempting a sliding stop on the sandy surface of Gabba at Brisbane in November 2002. It took a month for the swelling to go down sufficiently for surgeons to operate, and then he had to endure a further six weeks in which he was unable to move his leg.

"When I first got injured I did think about whether I would play again," Jones admitted to journalists on the eve of his comeback. "I had a horrible couple of months wondering what was going to happen, and after the operation I couldn't even pedal a bike for six weeks so that was disturbing. There was nothing to do but sit around at home watching television all day and watching the boys out in Australia, which was very hard for me."

Jones made his comeback for Glamorgan 2nd XI towards the end of last summer, before proving his fitness for the Caribbean on the England A trip to India. "It's been a long time coming," he said. "I've worked hard at the Academy with Rod Marsh and I've worked hard in India. I even hit 100% pace a couple of times out there and didn't feel any ill-effects from the knee, apart from being stiff the next day."

Jones's rehabilitation programme has resulted in a remodelled action, and an arrow-straight approach to the stumps off an 18-yard run-up. The knee may be holding up fine, but the mental scars have not entirely dissipated, and it will be a while yet before he'll be sliding in the outfield. "In time I will probably slide again, but the pitches out here are pretty sandy as well so it's not worth it," he said. "You'll probably see me just running after the ball here, but everyone is saying don't do anything stupid."

England are likely to field another 12-man line-up for Friday's game, after Jeff Dujon, the former West Indian wicketkeeper and coach of the Vice-Chancellor's XI indicated he'd like to give Jermaine Lawson another opportunity to push for a Test place. Lawson has been out of cricket since last May, after being reported for a suspect bowling action. He will be joined in the Vice-Chancellor's XI by Steve Tikolo and Kennedy Otieno, who helped Kenya to the semi-finals of the 2003 World Cup, and have since been playing in the Carib Beer Cup, West Indies' domestic competition.

England (probable) 1 Marcus Trescothick, 2 Michael Vaughan (capt), 3 Paul Collingwood, 4 Nasser Hussain, 5 Graham Thorpe, 6 Andrew Flintoff, 7 Chris Read (wk), 8 Ashley Giles, 9 Simon Jones, 10 Steve Harmison, 11 Matthew Hoggard, 12 James Anderson.