Cricket:Andrew Flintoff lost his battle to prove his fitness for England in the opening npower Test today when he was ruled out with an ankle injury.
The 29-year-old Lancashire all-rounder has been battling for several days to overcome discomfort in his left ankle he felt while bowling against Hampshire over the weekend.
His ankle, which has been operated on twice in the last three years, improved in the build-up but Flintoff failed his fitness test this morning with England deciding to replace him with Owais Shah.
Middlesex batsman Shah was due to bat at number three for the first Test of the international summer while England also decided to keep faith with left-arm spinner Monty Panesar rather than rely on an all-seam attack.
Lancashire seamer James Anderson, brought into the squad as cover yesterday for Flintoff's injury, had been expected to take his place in the attack alongside Durham pair Steve Harmison and Liam Plunkett and Yorkshire's Matthew Hoggard.
Harmison, making his first appearance since the Ashes whitewash, was claiming his 50th England Test cap having claimed 24 wickets in three LV County Championship matches for Durham.
But that attack was forced to wait for his chance with West Indies captain Ramnaresh Sarwan, leading the side for the first time as the official captain, winning the toss and deciding to bowl first in seamer-friendly conditions.
West Indies chose to leave slingy fast bowler Fidel Edwards out of their line-up to leave Corey Collymore and youngster Jerome Taylor leading the attack with back-up from Daren Powell and all-rounder Dwayne Bravo.