FREDDIE: I'VE BEEN IN PAIN SINCE I WAS A LAD

WHEN you are charging in to bowl with 25,000 fans driving you on and you're living on adrenaline and excitement, it's easy to forget injuries.

But when everyone's gone home and you wake up the next morning, that's when you have to deal with it.

And when I woke up on Tuesday morning, I was sore.

Lord's was really special. The incentive was so high that I just got on with it and there was no way Straussy was going to get that ball out of my hands.

Serious

And, to be honest, it's going to take something really serious to stop me finishing my Test career at The Oval in three weeks.

Even playing in my teenage years, I experienced injury from time to time, so you could say I am used to it.

Most people think my injuries have only come to light over the last five years but there was a spell as a teenager when I struggled for five or six years because my back was so bad.

The fact is, fast bowling can produce injuries and injury and pain have gone hand-in-hand with me throughout my cricketing life.

Look at what a fast bowler puts himself through every time he runs in to bowl.

Unnatural

You're whacking your foot down with something like 10 times your bodyweight going through it, you put your body in positions that are unnatural and, frankly, nobody's body is designed to do that hour after hour.

I weigh 16st 7lb and I've bowled with injuries most of my career - most fast bowlers do.

At Lord's I was in discomfort for most of the game although it never got to the point where I was thinking 'This will be my last Test'.

Everything my body has been through over the years was bound to take a toll.

It just came to a point where I would come back from an injury and have a couple of weeks where everything was fine, then things would go downhill again.

Rehabilitation

I've done something like two years rehabilitation out of the last four and for my body, for my family's sake I have decided to call time on the Tests and concentrate on the shorter form of cricket.

APPEAL - Freddie Flintoff

Mentally and physically, I'm exhausted up to three days after playing in a five-day Test match, especially if I've bowled a decent number of overs, like last week.

I'm not going to sit here and say we play too much cricket.

That's an argument that has gone on for a long time. But gone are the days when fast bowlers play on to their late 30s. People have asked me about my long-term well-being with all the cortisone injections I've had.

Hopeful

But you live for what you are doing now. I'm not thinking about 20 years time, I'm only focusing on what happens next week at Edgbaston.

I'm hopeful I can get through the next three Tests. There are no guarantees I can play through 15 days of cricket in such a short space of time but I will do everything physically possible.

I've just got through 40 overs of bowling at a decent pace so that is encouraging in itself.

I spoke to the support staff and the surgeon after the second Test and they are happy for me to keep going. They have got my best interests at heart. Whatever happens, I will have no regrets about anything I have done in cricket. In fact, I'll look back with pride.

Achievement

Finishing with an Ashes win at The Oval would be an amazing achievement for this team and would be fantastic for the entire nation.

Obviously, losing Kevin Pietersen to injury is a huge blow. He's our best player, after all.

But the spirit in this team is strong and we're full of confidence going into the rest of the series.

And, as I said, it's going to take something really serious to keep me out of the action.

Interview: SAM PETERS

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