Australians feel the Flintoff factor

News of Andrew Flintoff's knee injury has been met with little sympathy from the Australian camp. Michael Hussey spoke of the team's delight in grinding the injury-prone allrounder into the Cardiff dust throughout the first Test, while Simon Katich highlighted the disturbance Flintoff's absence could create within the England team for the Lord's Test.

Having dealt with numerous injury concerns of their own in recent months, the Australians appeared happy to indulge in a touch of schadenfreude upon learning of Flintoff's knee complaint on Tuesday. "It's obviously a big loss for them if he's out," Katich told Cricinfo. "It's not just his bowling, you have to throw in his batting as well, and he did bat well in both innings of the first Test, so they lose a bit of their flexibility if he's out injured, definitely."

Hussey was even less sentimental when discussing Flintoff's injury and its potential impact on the England team. "It would be a huge blow for England because he's such a key player," Hussey said. "He adds a lot of balance to the team with his batting and his overs. It would be a big blow. It was nice to make him do a lot of work in the first Test and it would be nice in the coming Test matches, if he's fit, to make him work pretty hard again."

Both Katich and Hussey were wary of making bold statements in relation to Steve Harmison's call-up to England's expanded 14-man squad for Lord's. Acutely aware of the danger his height and bounce represent, the senior Australian batsmen spoke reverentially of Durham's in-form fast bowler.

"If you're bringing someone like Harmison in, who has been bowling very well for Durham and also against us at Worcester the other day, he presents probably just as many problems [as Flintoff]," Katich said.

Stuart Broad was similarly confident Harmison could fill the bowling void created by Flintoff's absence. "It would be very disappointing; I think every side in the world would want him in their team," Broad told Cricinfo. "But we've got the players who can come in for him. Obviously Harmison's been bowling well for Durham and Ian Bell's been scoring really good runs for Warwichshire. We'd have to look at the positives if Fred wasn't available. Hopefully he'll come up and fine and be walking out with us at Lord's on Thursday."