Flintoff heading to Dubai for rehabilitation

Andrew Flintoff is to spend the next three months in Dubai to aid his recovery from the latest operation to his right knee and make a return to England's one-day team as their star allrounder.

"It's always easier doing rehabilitation in warm weather and that's the main reason why we've decided to go to Dubai," Flintoff told his website. "Three years ago when I was recovering from my ankle, we all went to Florida as a family and it worked really well and I see this being a similar situation.

"I can't drive for at least another six weeks, so it will difficult getting from A to B and doing my rehabilitation without relying on someone else to drive if I stayed in England. Where we are staying in Dubai, all I have to do is press the right button in the lift to get from our apartment to the gym and everything I need is on the doorstep."

Flintoff, 31, retired from Test cricket at the end of England's Ashes-winning summer, and 24 hours after helping them regain the urn he underwent arthroscopy to his injured right knee. He admitted in a newspaper interview last week that there's a chance he may never play again, but his main ambition remains to play in another World Cup and has targetted England's one-day leg of their tour of Bangladesh next February as a realistic date for a comeback.

His latest bout of rehabilitation suffered a minor setback this week when it was revealed that he was afflicted by deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in his right calf, though the ECB was quick to release a statement describing it as "a common complication of surgery".