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Flintoff on road to recovery
22:45, Dec 22 2009
England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff expects to resume batting in the new year as he continues his recovery from surgery.
The 32-year-old is continuing his progress following knee surgery and revealed on his blog he will return to the nets next month, although he does not expect to be bowling for some time yet as he is following a programme devised by surgeon Andy Williams.
The Lancashire player retired from Test cricket in the summer and will now just concentrate on the shorter form of the game whenever he recovers from the surgery he underwent following the victorious Ashes series.
Flintoff then suffered a setback when he sustained a deep vein thrombosis in his right calf in September and has since been recovering in Dubai.
After spending a lot of time in the swimming pool, Flintoff has now also started cycling.
In a blog on his official website, www.andrewflintoff.com, Flintoff said: "I'm just really looking forward to starting cricket exercises again, which I hope to start early in the new year.
"As long as I don't have any setbacks, I should be able to start batting against a bowling machine.
"I won't be doing anything daft and I will have to ease into it again, but it will be good just to start playing some form of cricket again after all this time and it will be great to start hitting balls again.
"When all you do is go to the gym every day, you can almost forget that you're a cricketer."
However, Flintoff is realistic about his prospects for returning to bowling, saying: "While it's good to be able to pick up a bat again, I'm still some way away from bowling again just yet. I've been given a programme by the surgeon, Andy Williams, and I will be sticking to that. I can't see me being given the go-ahead to start bowling for a good few weeks yet."
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