England rode the injury wagon yet again, with Ian Blackwell becoming the latest casualty. He was rushed to hospital after being hit on the left hand in the nets by Steve Harmison, but fortunately an X-ray revealed no fracture. Blackwell was struck by a short delivery from Harmison in the WACA practice area as England prepared for Friday's one-dayer against Sri Lanka. England will need to be careful about letting Harmison loose in the nets. Last month he broke Ashley Giles' wrist at Adelaide shortly before the second Test.

Blackwell was examined by physio Dean Conway and then sent for a precautionary X-ray at a nearby hospital. "He didn't think it was as bad as he first thought anyway," said Conway, "but he went off to the hospital just to check on the knuckle on his index finger to see if that was alright".

Paul Collingwood, who also had a rough time at the nets against the extra pace of Harmison, said, "These pitches are quick and bouncy and in an enclosed net like that it can sometimes feel a bit claustrophobic and a bit quicker than it does out in the middle.

"It's very hard to hook and pull in the nets and you can get caught in two minds what to do ... You expect the bowlers to come in at you in the nets, it's just like a batsman trying to hit the bowler as hard as he can - you expect that.

"It's fast out in the middle so we have to work at it because we're going to get bouncers in the game tomorrow and we're going to have to have a plan of how to deal with it."

England are expected to give Adam Hollioake his first outing on Friday in what is their last VB series game before attention switches back to the Ashes series with the Melbourne Test starting on Boxing Day.

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