Physio admits he feared for Flintoff future

Dave Roberts, the Lancashire physio who shepherded Andrew Flintoff back to full fitness, admitted for the first time yesterday that he wondered whether the England all-rounder would ever recapture his old swagger following the fourth and most recent operation on his left ankle in Amsterdam last October.

Roberts was oozing pride after Flintoff's hair-raising spell to Jacques Kallis on Thursday evening, a passage of play the physio described as "the culmination of all the hard work we've put in over the last few years". But his pleasure was tinged with anxious memories as he recalled his own uncertainty of 10 months ago. "I've never said this to anyone before but after that last operation I did think, 'Will he ever be the same again?' I could never share that with Fred because you have to be upbeat. So to see him come in the other night was fantastic and a massive relief."

Roberts has been Flintoff's physical - and at times mental - guru ever since he underwent his first ankle operation in 2005, although the latest period of rehab began with the less than fearsome sight of Roberts pushing his patient out of Schipol airport in a wheelchair last autumn. But optimism grew when the Dutch ankle specialist Professor Niek van Dijk removed a tiny piece of bone fragment from the troublesome joint, after which it was a case of nursing Flintoff back to health.

"Part of the problem was the muscle wasting that went on, so we had to build him up all over again," said Roberts. "It was really important to get a full six months with him this time rather than just three, but it was still quite a journey. After the operation we went to Florida for eight weeks before Christmas, where he still couldn't run. That meant a lot of spinning, weights, cross-training and reshaping his body to get more definition in his lower limbs.

"By the time we got to Cape Town, where we spent 10 days in January, he was running again but we had to gradually reintegrate him. It was also a question of mentally moving him away from being my patient to being a cricketer. The Lions tour to India in February helped that process, as did Lancashire's pre-season trip to Dubai. Thursday evening was a moment of huge pride for me but I've had great support from the ECB, especially Hugh Morris [the England team's managing director]."

Roberts described the side strain that ruled Flintoff out for six weeks earlier in the summer as "a nightmare" but believes the setback added to his desire to return. "In some ways it got him hungrier and he trained harder again," he said. "I'm very proud of the fact that he can now bowl like that but I'll be happier once he's got through a full series and had no reaction. I am optimistic. He's fitter and stronger than ever. If he keeps fit, keeps doing his rehab and prehab and looks after the ankle, he can be around for a long time."