Struggling Andrew Flintoff must have more surgery

Andrew Flintoff's humbling Indian Premier League (IPL) experience got a lot worse yesterday when he flew home for keyhole surgery on his right knee. Scans revealed a “slight medial meniscus tear” and the prognosis, given successful surgery, is a three to five-week layoff. He will miss the opening two npower Test matches of the summer against West Indies.
Already cast in an unfavourable light after a series of expensive bowling displays, Flintoff - jointly with Kevin Pietersen the IPL's highest-paid player with an auction fee of $1.55 million (about £1.05 million) - felt a niggle in his right knee at Wednesday's practice with Chennai Super Kings, but felt fit enough to play against Delhi Daredevils in Durban the next day.
It turned out to be a bad day for his pride and his body: the most expensive bowling analysis in IPL history on the pitch, nought for 50 in four overs, was inflamed by further knee trouble off it, resulting in scans analysed by Nick Pierce, the ECB's chief medical officer, who recommended surgery.
So, having played three of the six games to which he was contracted, his IPL adventure is over, although it is understood that he will keep his full £450,000 fee.
Flintoff's principal employer, the ECB, was quick to go into damage-limitation mode yesterday, no doubt expecting the flak that inevitably will come its way, given the widespread feeling that England's best players - like those of Australia - should be resting, or preparing for an Ashes summer with first-class cricket in England. Pierce emphasised that such a degenerative injury could have happened “any time, anywhere”.
Hugh Morris, the managing director of England cricket, found a way to put some positive spin on the situation by implying that the timing of the injury was almost fortuitous, given that Flintoff will be available for the Ashes and the World Twenty20. By doing so, Morris not only highlighted England's disregard for West Indies again, but also attempted to divert attention from his decision to allow England's players to compete in the IPL, which has been widely criticised.
Pierce may well be correct to imply that Flintoff could have been injured just as easily playing for Lancashire, but would he have been tearing around the outfield at Hove, sliding on his injured knee to save a boundary, as he was on Thursday? In any case, getting injured playing for the Super Kings, instead of Lancashire or England, somehow makes things worse.
Given the player's injury record and contractual situation, the ECB had every reason and right to prevent him from playing, but by cravenly capitulating to the demands of the players and the Professional Cricketers' Association, it immediately rendered worthless the central contracts - the point of which is to prevent exactly this type of thing happening. The ECB and Morris deserve all the criticism that will be thrown at them.
The players are under contract to England for a reason, and are well remunerated for a reason. The ECB ought to have asked a simple question of those who wanted to play in the IPL: do you want to be a centrally contracted player or a free agent? You cannot have it both ways.
Despite Morris's assurances, there is no guarantee that Flintoff will be fit for the start of the World Twenty20 in the first week of June. Surgery can go wrong and, being the type of bowler he is, Flintoff is always more prone to other injuries after a long layoff. Last summer, after recovering from an ankle injury, he immediately tore an intercostal muscle because his body had become soft from lack of bowling.
There is usually a high degree of sympathy when a player gets injured, particularly one as amiable and important as Flintoff, but in this instance any sympathy is tempered by the context. Flintoff is extremely wealthy and if, as he constantly assures us, England are his first priority, he did not need to take the rupee.
As for Morris and the ECB, they will wake up to a raft of people who would be well within their rights to scream: “We told you so.”
Source:The times