Mark Butcher says he is willing to delay a knee operation in an attempt to be available for the final Test against Sri Lanka at Old Trafford next week. Butcher had a scan on his left knee on Tuesday, and though acute cartilage damage has been ruled out, he will require keyhole surgery at some point. He is in some doubt for the third Test and will have a fitness test before the game.

"I am going up to Old Trafford with a view to playing," Butcher said. "But I would say I am no more than 50-50 at the moment. It would be a shame to miss out but these things happen and you can't do anything about them.

"The damage is in the joint between the two bones and it needs to be cleared up. So if I played in the next Test I would have it done in the break between this series and the Test series that follows with India."

Butcher has never played a one-day international, and so the six-week gap between Test series against Sri Lanka and India, when the three sides will compete in the NatWest Series, is the most sensible time for him to have surgery. The first Test against India begins on July 25, and with a predicted recovery time of three to four weeks, Butcher would expect to be fit for that.

Though Butcher has been in excellent form - he made a century at Lord's and 94 at Edgbaston - his loss would not be too damaging. John Crawley made 72 runs for once out at Lord's before being omitted to accommodate a change in the balance of the side at Edgbaston. With the Old Trafford pitch expected to turn, Crawley's proficiency against spin bowling, and Muttiah Muralitharan in particular (he smashed 156 not out at The Oval in 1998) makes him the perfect stand-in.

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