The nightmare continues for England, with sunrise still hours away. The next man onto the injury scrapheap is John Crawley, who according to Duncan Fletcher, the coach, is unlikely to play any part in the second Test that starts in Adelaide on Thursday. Crawley bruised his hip after being struck by a Brad Williams delivery in the tour match against Australia A at Hobart last Sunday, and despite encouraging noises being made initially, he appears to have lost the fitness battle.

"He's not looking too good," said Fletcher. "He was uncomfortable yesterday and he noticed that, after he practised, it got worse. He struggled again in the nets as soon as he tried to apply any pressure on to that leg." Robert Key is expected to replace him in the Test side.

Key will join Richard Dawson as an unexpected addition to the England XI. Dawson replaced Ashley Giles who broke his wrist facing Steve Harmison in the nets. A few hours earlier, Andy Flintoff's hernia problems had put him out of contention, paving the way for Craig White to script another chapter in his Australian tale of woe. Flintoff and Giles have both been ruled out of the next two Tests.

Steve Waugh added to the growing barrage of criticism regarding England's fitness problems when he said England have paid the price for gambling on unfit players for the Australian tour. Darren Gough and Simon Jones are already out of the tour, leaving England's bowling attack increasingly out-of-depth against a powerful Australian batting line-up in prime form.

"They picked some guys who weren't fit, so in some ways they've made their own bed," said Waugh, not missing the chance to rub it in on the eve of the second Test. England's selection policy of choosing unfit players to tour, he said, was in contrast to Australia's approach of only playing fit players. "It's unfortunate that a guy [Giles] breaks his wrist at training, that's one of those things, but if you pick guys who aren't fit at the start of the tour, then you are taking a gamble."

On Wednesday, David Graveney, England's chairman of selectors, defended the team's medical staff, blaming bad luck more than poor selection policy. "We selected our squad on the medical advice given," Graveney said. "I think there's been some unnecessary criticism levelled at our medical team, as it's not an exact science." He suggested the number of matches England had to play in the last two years could have been a contributory factor.

Graveney said it was up to the remaining bowlers to pull together. "But I'm down to speak to Duncan," he said, "and we'll bang our heads together and come up with the right formula."

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