Vaughan and Hick cause concern ahead of Faislabad Test

England's plans to keep Andrew Flintoff with the touring party until the final match could pay dividends this week if the fitness of Michael Vaughan and form of Graeme Hick continue to cause concern.

Flintoff was sent home after the one-day series to have treatment on his back but was recalled as cover for the growing number of injuries to Test batsmen.

Now, with a gruelling ten days of cricket ahead including back-to-back Test matches in Faislabad and Karachi, Flintoff could find himself back in action as a specialist batsman replacing Vaughan who is still struggling with a calf injury.

The Yorkshireman was hoping to prove his fitness in the three-day match against a PCB XI in Lahore, but survived just 34 minutes at the crease and looked far from fit in the field, requiring regular ice treatment.

"He's still a bit of a concern," admitted captain Nasser Hussain.

"We would have liked him to have a bat in the last match because there is only so much the physio can do with him.

"He can do training and shuttle runs, but you need to put yourself under pressure and push your body to the limit by batting and catching and you can't do that in practice, but we'll give him a full run-out in the next few days."

Hick is also causing concern after scoring only 20 runs in the last Test and following that up with a disappointing innings in the warm up match last week.

But despite that, Hussain is optimistic of England's chances of pulling off victory in the second Test - their first win in Pakistan since 1962 - and even securing the series.

"I've been heartened by everything we've done out here so far," he said.

"We've come to this part of the world and the cricket we've played in the first class games, the one-day games, the one-day warm-up games and the Test match has been good - everything we've done so far has been heartening."

"We've learned as we've gone along, the fitness levels have increased and everything has been a gently upward curve which is very pleasing, but we still have a lot of hard work to do."