Gough to miss entire Test series after further knee surgery

England's hopes of having Darren Gough available for the second Test against Sri Lanka at Edgbaston starting on May 30th were dashed when it was announced that he has suffered a recurrence of an injury to his right knee and has been ruled out of the whole series.

The pace bowler first incurred the injury in the one-day series in New Zealand during the winter and had surgery to rectify it. At one time it was thought that he might be back in time for the first Test at Lord's this week, but then Edgbaston became a more realistic target.

However, Gough was still uncomfortable when attempting a return to cricket last week and it has been decided that he will need further corrective keyhole surgery. This means that he will be out of action for a month and the earliest he is expected to be fit for a return to the England side is the start of the NatWest Series of one-day internationals at the end of June.

Coach Duncan Fletcher acknowledged that Gough's absence will be a serious blow to England's chances. "This is a big loss to us as we were really looking forward to have Darren fit and raring to go for this series, but we're hoping he will have fully recovered in time for the one-day series."

Dav Whatmore, coach to the Sri Lankans, believes the loss of Gough will be as significant to England as that of Muttiah Muralitharan from his own side at Lord's. "I'm sure the England team will miss him just as much as we will miss Murali. They cancel each other out, that is how important he is to England. He just seems to spark them off.

"Both Murali and Gough have fantastic figures, but you have to look beyond that because their value to the teams cannot be over-emphasised."

Gough will undergo what is a routine operation to clean out floating debris from inside the knee in Sheffield tomorrow. The he will have to begin a programme of rehabilitation just as he did two months ago when he had a similar operation to repair a cartilage in the same knee.