Pietersen Played Entire Test With a Fractured Rib

The England captain Kevin Pietersen admitted after defeat against India in the first Test in Chennai that he played the entire game with a fractured rib suffered before the final one-day international in Cuttack nearly three weeks ago. Pietersen admitted to sleepless nights before the Chennai Test as he agonized over the debate about whether England should accept security advice that it was safe to return to India, but until yesterday he repeatedly played down the extent of his rib injury.

"I have got a fractured rib," he said. "There are no dramas. I will deal with it. I don't like injections. I will just take painkillers."

Pietersen, who scored just 4 and 1 in his two innings at Chennai, was in obvious discomfort in the field yesterday, clutching his right side several times as he threw in underarm. He is determined to play in the second Test in Mohali, which begins on Friday, as he seeks to hold together the spirit of an England squad which was badly jolted by India's successful chase of their target of 387.

Pietersen's admission that he had "sore ribs" was overshadowed after the Cuttack one-day international as England suffered a host of injuries. Andrew Flintoff jarred his ankle, which has has had four operations, and Stuart Broad picked up a hamstring strain which caused him to miss the Chennai Test. Broad looked virtually back to full fitness when practicing on the square at lunchtime yesterday and is expected to return for the Mohali Test.

Pietersen has had a similar rib complaint before. He had to return home early from a one-day series in Australia nearly two years ago after he tried to walk down the pitch at the MCG to pull Glenn McGrath and suffered the consequences.