Flintoff confident of recovery for start of season

Andrew Flintoff is confident that he will recover from ankle surgery in time for the start of the season. England's allrounder Flintoff will undergo an operation on a bone spur that has been troubling him for a while.

"I've got time now to get it done," Flintoff told Sky Sports. "I've got a few weeks to get fit for the start of the season. I've had a few injections over my career, but this is a different sort of injury. The workload has played a part but lots of bowlers have had this done."

He withdrew from England's seven-match one-day series against South Africa and flew home to have the operation. The surgery has been carefully timed so that Flintoff should be ready for the visit of Bangladesh in May - and, ultimately, the Ashes. The series against Australia starts in June. "It is just a case of getting this window of opportunity," Flintoff said. "It has come to the point where I need to get it done and there was no other time."