HAD the first npower Test match against West Indies been starting today rather than tomorrow, Mark Butcher would not be playing, after the whiplash injury he suffered in a car crash on Monday evening. Butcher had to abandon an indoor net session at Lord’s yesterday after facing only a few balls and can only hope that his “very stiff and sore” neck makes a rapid recovery.

Ironically, at the time of the accident, he was on his way to receive treatment on a thigh strain that has been improving. If he is not passed fit, it will almost certainly be because of his neck, not his thigh.

Butcher said that he hoped treatment and a good night’s rest would cure the problem, but Dr Peter Gregory, the ECB chief medical officer, has given warning that whiplash injuries tend to get worse days after the event. If Butcher cannot get through a full net session this morning, which is unlikely if he gave himself no chance of starting a Test today, he will withdraw. “I must give Rob Key as much time to prepare as possible,” he said.

Butcher nearly missed the first Test against West Indies in Jamaica in March with an ankle injury suffered while fielding in a warm-up match. He was nevertheless cleared to play and went on to make a crucial half-century under pressure when West Indies appeared likely to gain a first-innings lead. Instead, England got their noses in front and never looked back.

The importance of Butcher to the team cannot be overstated. He has played in their past 42 Test matches, averaging an impressive 41.97 in that time. He said that Ian Botham’s and Alan Knott’s joint England record of appearing in 65 consecutive Tests was one on which he had trained his sights. It may now be an unrealistic target, after Butcher, having stopped to turn right at traffic lights a couple of miles from the Oval, was hit from behind.

Whether or not Butcher plays, England are not expecting him to perform the fourth seam-bowling role. Marcus Trescothick had a lengthy trundle in practice yesterday. Hopes that Andrew Flintoff may still be able to bowl at Lord’s were scotched by Gregory, who said that the all-rounder had undergone a cortisone injection in his left ankle yesterday morning. The decision to inject was taken after Flintoff felt pain bowling for Lancashire in the Twenty20 Cup last week and a scan showed inflamed tissues around the same area of his ankle that has curtailed his involvement this summer.

“At this stage, our expectation is that Andrew would be most likely to resume bowling in the second Test (at Edgbaston, tomorrow week),” Gregory said, adding that surgery was not inevitable. Glenn McGrath, the Australia fast bowler, had an identical injury and has only just come back after surgery kept him out for a year. His first operation was unsuccessful, and he required a second.

Flintoff said that he had hoped the injury would heal on its own because cortisone injections are not without risk. A month’s rest from bowling after the third Test against New Zealand did not, however, prove to be sufficient. While most batsmen store away their own statistics, Flintoff knows how many injections — painkilling or anti-inflammatory — he has endured over his career. For the record, this was his fifteenth, his previously suspect back having borne the brunt.