Andrew Flintoff doubtful for T20 World Cup

London:

England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff could miss ICC World Twenty20 after he revealed that he might not recover from his knee surgery in time for the biennial event starting June 5.

Flintoff has been named in the England squad for the tournament to be held at home but the all-rounder admitted that he is yet to start running and has only just started walking without crutches.

The all-rounder hurt his knee playing for Chennai Super Kings during the ongoing Indian Premier League and had an operation to repair a cartilage tear.

"The knee problem had been festering for a while. I had the operation two weeks ago. But I'm already off my crutches and would love to play in the Twenty20 World Cup. I'm in the squad but that might be too tight. I've been making progress and I've been on the exercise bike for 45 minutes," said Flintoff.

"I'm still a while away from running, I think, a week and a half or so. One of the things I've got to be careful about is the swelling, which is why we are constantly icing it and monitoring it after training. I saw the specialist on Tuesday and he was pretty cautious about it," he was quoted as saying by 'The Guardian'.

"It would be great to play in the Twenty20 World Cup but we'll see. The rehab's going to have to go extremely well and I'm probably going to have to be a bit lucky as well."

England's Twenty20 captain Paul Collingwood admitted it would be a body blow to the hosts if Flintoff doesn't make it.

"I think we're still waiting on how his fitness will be over the next couple of weeks," said Collingwood.

"It would obviously be a big blow if he's not in it, but we'll have to overcome it. He's very much two players in one, as I've always said, but I think we've got quite a versatile squad with the players we've got in there.

"It would be a huge blow if he wasn't going to be fit, but we certainly have the players in the squad to overcome that in many ways," he added.