Vaughan aims for January comeback

Michael Vaughan: January target © Getty Images

Michael Vaughan has said that he hopes to be back in action in the New Year after undergoing a fourth operation on his knee earlier this month. If he does make a January return, then he will have been out of action for more than a year.

"It's going to be a long road but hopefully I'll be back playing cricket again in the early part of 2007," Vaughan, who was watching The Open at Hoylake, told the BBC. "It's been a tough year, I thought I'd got very close to being fit to play and it wasn't right so I had to have another operation. At least it looks like I'm on the upward slide now and I can look forward to playing cricket again."

He said that he aimed to be ready to play in the VB Series which follows the Ashes in January, and that would put him in the frame to lead England in the World Cup which starts at the beginning of March.

"It's not nice to miss any tournament but to miss the biggest one, with what happened last year, I would have loved to have gone down there to try to win them [The Ashes] again," Vaughan admitted. "But that's not to be. I have to look forward and try to get fit for the early part of 2007, try to play a part in the one-day games and also the World Cup."