Cricket: Flintoff Ruled Out of Lancashire's Match With Sussex and Likely to Miss Third Test

England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff looks almost certain to miss the third Test against West Indies after being ruled out of Lancashire's County Championship match at Sussex due to continuing problems with his ankle.

Flintoff had been practicing in the nets in the hope of playing for his county as an all-rounder but he is still experiencing soreness in the joint. He will now be assessed by the England and Wales Cricket Board medical team, but his participation in the third Test, which starts in eight days' time, is now unlikely. The problem is that no one seems to know whether this is a new injury or a reoccurrence of the same left ankle problem that has required surgery twice in the last three years - as England coach Peter Moores has admitted.

"Everybody wants a fit Andrew Flintoff," said Moores. "It's been quite tough for the medical guys to decide the best way to get him right. They are guided to some extent by the pain he has got and then somewhere along the line hopefully it will be decided that it is going to go away, or is manageable, or we will have to do something else. It is a bit of a daily thing at the moment.

"The challenge was to decide would the injury go away over time. What we do know is they are giving it their maximum attention. There is no doubt that he has a troublesome ankle. They are not sure if it is something new. He is seeing all the top people and they are working with it. I know he wants to play so I will push the medical team to do the best they can to get him to play, but if it's injured, it's injured - if it's fit, it's fit. That's what you have a medical team for."