Vaughan: Knee Not A Problem

Captain Michael Vaughan is unequivocal in his belief he will not only get through next week's first Test against South Africa but the entire npower series.

Vaughan's perennial soreness in his right knee resurfaced in the past fortnight forcing him to undergo an Ostinol injection last Wednesday night, designed to get him through the four-match campaign.

Alarm bells started ringing earlier this week when the 33-year-old was evidently in discomfort during the County Championship defeat to Durham and sat out the final afternoon to have ice applied to the joint.

But he insists the constant rehabilitation of the knee, operated on four times throughout his career, is now part of his professional life.

"It is nothing new, nothing different, I have just learned how to manage it," Vaughan, who has played 15 Tests in a row since coming back from an 18-month exile last summer, said.

"When you have a chronic knee, there are going to be odd days when it doesn't feel as good as others and the good thing about it is I know how to manage that situation.

"I have no doubt whatsoever I will play a full part in the series and move like I did against New Zealand, which was very, very well.

"The knee is as it has been for the last year, it has obviously been aggravated a bit over the last few weeks but we have had those kind of periods over that last year and I have managed to play all the Test matches.

"I have no fear I won't be able to do the same, starting on Thursday, and then all the Test matches against South Africa.

"Ice packs on the knee is just the norm for me at the minute."

Vaughan first revealed a flaring of the problem on the eve of the third Test against New Zealand at Trent Bridge but was still keen to play in Yorkshire's Twenty20 campaign.

He missed a couple of those matches, however, and then sacrificed the chance of playing in today's Friends Provident semi-final clash against Essex to undergo the latest course of injections, which he had not previously disclosed publicly.

"I have courses of injections in the knee, which aren't cortisone injections, it is just a fluid called Ostinol which lubricates the joint and makes it a bit easier to move around.

"The best way to describe it is it's like oiling your limbs; you have a course of three over six months and you feel fine.

"It is something I have had over the year but not had to talk about it until it has been brought to attention these last few days," said Vaughan, who spent the back end of this week netting at Loughborough with fellow Test specialists, and 2005 Ashes fast-bowling hero Simon Jones.

"It was felt this was a period in which I was going to need one of these injections and also to put myself back into the four and five-day mode.

"I have to manage the knee, which means missing the odd game for Yorkshire, for what is the bigger picture, and that is Test match cricket for me."

Andrew Flintoff, another of England's high-profile players sidelined by long-term injury, was not deemed ready for the step up in intensity following a niggling side strain.

However, the door has been left open for his return at Headingley in less than a fortnight.

With the recall of such a talismanic figure imminent, England might feel compelled to ensure they come out from the Lord's opener, which begins next Thursday, on level terms.

But Vaughan, who is set to create Test history by captaining an unchanged XI for the sixth consecutive match, is adamant the looming figure of Flintoff will have an inspirational rather than detrimental effect on their play.

"It will be a real positive for the team," said Vaughan. "Neither do I think the team needs freshening up whatsoever because they are a really committed bunch.

"But everyone will be playing next week with the knowledge that Andrew Flintoff will have to be fitted into this England team when he's available, fit and ready to play.

"That should drive you on, to make sure you're not that one person who misses out.

"I am delighted that he is back playing, give him at least another week and maybe he will play in the second if not the third game."

England, who despite four wins out of five against New Zealand recently failed to dominate their opponents until the final contest in Nottingham, are braced for a step up in class against Graeme Smith's Proteas' fearsome pace bowling and obdurate batting.

It is, Vaughan reckons, exactly the kind of physical and mental examination required 12 months out from the Ashes.

"I am really looking forward to the challenge because I think it has come at the right time for us to be tested against probably one of the top two teams in the world as we speak," Vaughan said.

"This has not got the little urn to play for but this series is up there with the biggest in the world.

"Australia is just a year away and this is just the kind of side we want to be playing.

"At the moment the Aussies seem a long way away because this series should be special."