England will reassess the fitness of Ryan Sidebottom in Bangalore at the weekend after he was unable to bowl in the nets yesterday because of a recurrence of back trouble. Sidebottom was ruled out of the XII for the third game in the seven-match series against India in Kanpur today and is becoming increasingly frustrated at the way his international career has stalled through a series of niggling injuries.

His back problem was blamed by England during the summer on having to sleep in different hotel beds during the course of a series. Since then he has also required treatment on his groin, calf and Achilles. Sustained efforts during the year after his recall in May 2007 in the wake of seven years in county cricket appear to have taken their toll on the body.

Sidebottom reported stiffness after the short flight from Indore on Tuesday and a scan that evening proved inconclusive. The medical team have adopted a cautious approach with the left-arm seam bowler throughout the trip after his aborted comeback during the Stanford Series in Antigua, where he bowled only two overs against Middlesex and was not considered for the $20 million highlight.

Other than those 12 balls, he has not bowled in a competitive match since the end of July and it seems that England were premature in saying on Sunday that he was back to full fitness. At the start of the tour to India, Sidebottom expected to recover from Achilles trouble for the second match, but the latest setback, though not so bad as to prevent his batting in the nets or playing touch rugby, means another rethink.

“It has been pretty frustrating over the past two months,” he said. “To pull up in Antigua was disappointing, but there is nothing I can do. I have lost weight and worked hard on my fitness. You pick up injuries through your career. Eighteen months ago I would not have thought I would have been anywhere near here and I have been honoured with another central contract, so I am delighted with that.”

Sourav Ganguly, the former India captain, has described the England attack as “one-dimensional” and Sidebottom would pose a different threat to batsmen with his angle of delivery, swing and slower balls. His skills came to the fore in Sri Lanka last winter when he was the leading bowler as the team recovered from 1-0 down to win 3-2, their best one-day performance in the sub- continent for two decades.

However, England will soon need to look beyond the limited-overs fixtures to consider whether Sidebottom remains a viable member of the squad for the two Test series starting on December 11. It would be a risk to include a player with an unproven fitness record for a five-day game. Possible replacements from the performance squad that is scheduled to leave for Bangalore tomorrow are Liam Plunkett, Sajid Mahmood, Mark Davies, Tim Bresnan and Amjad Khan.

For today's match England added Graeme Swann, the off spinner, to the XI that lost in Indore but delayed naming a team because Ravi Bopara missed training through illness. Peter Moores, the head coach, and Kevin Pietersen, the captain, were considering whether to promote Andrew Flintoff up the order to capitalise on fielding restrictions.

Geoff Miller, the national selector, has returned home as scheduled, leaving the task of picking the team to Pietersen and Moores until Ashley Giles joins the pair during the three-day warm-up match in Baroda before the first Test. The Schofield report into the Ashes whitewash of 2006-07 recommended that a selector should be on tour at all times, but a team spokesman said yesterday that this was not practical.