He arrived with a swagger and vicious inswingers that gave his country hope. He left with a surprising bouncer that could yet knock England off course in the summer’s biggest sporting event.

Andrew Flintoff, who became a national, albeit flawed, hero, chose the eve of England’s Test match today against Australia at Lord’s, the home of cricket, to announce his partial retirement.

The Lancashire cricketer, regarded as the greatest English all-rounder since Sir Ian Botham and perhaps one of the most convivial drinking companions since Oliver Reed, threw a surprise announcement into preparations for the second Ashes Test.

He will no longer, after this summer’s battle with the Aussies has finished, take to the field for five-day Tests. He insisted that at the age of 31, his knees would allow him to play only in the increasingly lucrative one-day and Twenty20 formats.

Some may question whether the timing was designed to ensure that the Preston lad, whose exploits during the past decade have garnered front and back-page headlines, would stay in the limelight.

Other cricketing greats, including his former Australian foes such as Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath, waited until the Ashes had been won before departing. But Flintoff, one of the few Englishmen instantly recognised by a single sobriquet — in his case Freddie — has always been keen on the unconventional.

His passion for drunken late-night pedalo trips, which earned him a rebuke during the 2007 Cricket World Cup, and a 48-hour bender after the 2005 Ashes victory, culminating in an as yet unidentified England player urinating in the garden of No 10, have ensured that he will be remembered for his unorthodox social skills.

There’s no doubt that he was also one of the few players with the potential to win matches single-handedly. His swashbuckling style swept Australia aside four years ago and he has frequently unleashed mayhem with bat and ball for his country and county.

Flintoff said yesterday that there was no great mystery or conspiracy about his decision: his racked knees could no longer cope with the stresses of five-day matches. “I’ve been thinking about it for a while,” he said. “My body is telling me to give in for my own sanity. I can’t keep going through rehabilitation.”

There had been speculation about his fitness, and form, after last week’s first Test. He said it was the recurrence of an old knee injury after the Cardiff Test that persuaded him that it was time to go. He sought advice from Botham and Michael Vaughan, his former England captain.

Flintoff, who has played 76 Tests, said that he still hoped to play a leading role for England in one-day cricket, possibly playing in two more World Cups in 2011 and 2015. “There is a lot of cricket left in me,” he said. “I want to be the best in the world in that form of the game.”

Flintoff will lose the central contract that he has with England, worth £400,000 a year, dropping down to an increment contract of up to £150,000 as a specialist one-day player. But he will hardly be short of beer money. His aggressive skills in Twenty20, the shortest form of the game, could earn him big money around the world.