Flintoff brushes off Vaughan comments

Andrew Flintoff has said his friendship with Michael Vaughan remains as strong as ever, despite Vaughan's comments about Flintoff's conduct at the World Cup. Flintoff labelled his skipper's interview with The Guardian this week "a storm in a teacup".

"We sat down and spoke about a few things and, as far as we're concerned, it's finished," Flintoff told Sky Sports in an interview at Old Trafford. "We've got a great friendship and something like this, a bit of a storm in a teacup, isn't going to affect that."

Flintoff, who has undergone a third bout of surgery in as many years on his troublesome left ankle, was on hand to see Vaughan receive a mixed reception from Flintoff's home crowd during the third Test. However, Flintoff said: "I'm looking forward to getting back on the field, playing under him [Vaughan], as quick as I can.

"I've spoken to him, we've cleared it all up and we'll take it forward from here. From my point of view, it's something that happened a while ago. The one thing I'm concentrating on at the moment is not what happened six to eight weeks ago, it's getting back on the field.

"I've just had an operation on my ankle, I've got a rehab programme in front of me. All my focus and all my energy has got to go into that because I desperately want to get out on the cricket field."