Flintoff left with battle to make the Ashes deadline

"The handling of Flintoff, along with that of Michael Vaughan, Simon Jones and Ashley Giles, who were advised to rest before undergoing surgery, has put the medical set-up at the England and Wales Cricket Board under the spotlight," writes Angus Fraser in The Independent.

The left foot of most right-arm bowlers is placed flat on the ground and points down the pitch towards the batsman as the ball is delivered. Yet Flintoff initially lands on his toes with his foot pointing towards fine leg. He then twists it straight as his right arm comes over to bowl, a movement that places a huge strain on a tendon at the back of the ankle. And it is this motion, rather than the tiny fragments of bone in the joint - the diagnosis incorrectly given by the England and Wales Cricket Board after the Trent Bridge Test against Sri Lanka - that is the root of Flintoff's injury.

As England face the rest of the season without Andrew Flintoff, Christopher Martin-Jenkins says, in The Times, that "victory against Pakistan now would be a bonus."

When Flintoff had his last operation in January last year, to remove a bone spur on the heel of the same foot, the hope was that rehabilitation would take 12 weeks, but in the event he did not bowl again for 14 weeks and he was used sparingingly in the series against Bangladesh, before starting to bowl flat out against Australia three weeks later.