The Ashes:England have ruled out any prospect of sentiment influencing their selection for Thursday's second Ashes Test and will only include Andrew Flintoff in their Lord's plans if he has fully recovered from his recurrence of knee trouble.
All-rounder Flintoff's announcement that he intends to retire from Test cricket at the end of this Ashes summer and his eagerness to play in all the remaining Tests of the npower series has increased the pressure on England as he attempts to prove his fitness.
Having had three cortisone injections in his right knee on Monday, Flintoff bowled for the first time since reporting discomfort during the opening Test and is "hopeful" of being passed fit to play in his final Lord's Test.
But there will be no sentiment involved in England's selection criteria with captain Andrew Strauss insisting every player must be fit if they are to improve on their performance in Cardiff and compete with Australia over the next five days.
"When you go in with three seamers you've got to expect all three of them to be able to bowl a lot of overs," said Strauss. "I think Fred understands that and this week in all likelihood there'll be four seamers and maybe he won't have as big a workload.
"At the same time we would never play any bowler in a Test match who we didn't feel could contribute as fully as anybody else so that's what we'll weigh up before naming our side."
Standing at slip watching Flintoff pound through over after over during the drawn opening Test, Strauss could see for himself as Flintoff winced through those last few overs as Australia batted themselves into a major lead.
But Strauss is insistent that if Flintoff is selected he will have to push his body through, stressing: "At the back end of that innings when the Aussies were scoring freely there's always that incentive to say we've got to go easy on Fred.
"But the reality is it's a Test match and in a Test match you put your body on the line. Fred has done that time and time again over the years.
"We would never play a guy in a Test match if we didn't have a huge amount of confidence he'll be able to get through it."
For all of England's pragmatism about Flintoff's farewell to Lord's, Strauss is relishing the atmosphere that will be created at each ground by the crowd's reaction to him.
"I suppose there'll be people who have supported him over the years who will be very keen to show their appreciation of what he's done and I think that's a great thing," said Strauss.
"If anything I think that's going to add a little bit more to the atmosphere of the games.
"Just from pure cricketing ability he gives us a great balance in our side, he's a bowler the Aussies don't like facing and he's shown really good signs of returning to form with the bat as well.
"If I was to say what are our best 11 players he would be in the team every time and for this series in particular it's important to look at it that way."
Should Flintoff pass Thursday morning's fitness test, he is expected to be given the new ball to try and exploit opener Phil Hughes' fallibility to the short ball.
Indeed Strauss expects Hughes and several other members of Australia's line-up to feel the full force of Flintoff's determination to finish his Test career as a member of another Ashes winning line-up.
"I still think we're going to see a lot more cricket from Fred and I also think that if anything he's going to be more motivated for these last four Test matches - I think he really wants to go out with a bang," said Strauss. "In a way he'll be relieved it's out there and he can just get on with it.
"I think if anything it takes a bit of pressure off him and he can go out and express himself. I think that's how he plays his best cricket certainly with the bat. He always bowls pretty much the same way, in a wholehearted fashion."
Whether Flintoff plays or not, though, England are intent on entering the Test with five specialist bowlers having released spare batsman Ian Bell to allow him to return to Warwickshire for this week's championship match against Lancashire.
Bell's release was sanctioned after key batsman Kevin Pietersen was passed fit having had an injection in his back before the Cardiff Test and another in his troublesome Achilles tendon, which forced him to miss the one-day series against West Indies earlier this summer, on Monday