Flintoff fitter, stronger and excited to be back

Following his superb spell of 3 for 4 in his comeback match for Lancashire yesterday, Andrew Flintoff says his ankle is feeling a lot stronger. Richard Rae at The Guardian has more.

"But I was confident and I trusted in my ankle, it's a lot stronger after the rehab. I didn't have any strapping on it. I've had another scan and I'm still waiting for the reports, but I'm hopeful. I need to bowl more overs now, so I'll play in the Twenty20 at Headingley on Tuesday, and in the championship match against Kent, and see how I come out of that."

He confirmed he had a lost over a stone in weight.

"The one thing I have to do now is a constant rehab programme. Bowlers do have areas of weakness, and with me it's my ankle, and I'll have to keep working on it for the rest of my career. My rhythm wasn't quite what I'd have liked it to be - but I was a bit excited to be back."