Flintoff out of IPL 3 after knee surgery

The costliest player on the Indian Premier League roster, England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff will skip the cash-rich event's third edition in March-April as he recuperates from a knee surgery which has also ruled him out of the World Twenty20 Championships this summer.

In a statement issued through his agent Andrew Chandler, Flintoff said the routine arthroscopy on his injured left knee will keep him off the field for the next six months.

Flintoff, who was bought for a whopping $1.55 million by Chennai Super Kings in the IPL auction last year, underwent the original knee surgery the day after England regained the Ashes last summer, the time when he also announced his Test retirement.

He later went freelance, turning down an incremental contract offered by the England and Wales Cricket Board.

"It is disappointing not to be able to play for Chennai, who have been very supportive throughout my time with them, but I took this decision because I love playing cricket and want to give myself the best chance of extending my career," he said.

"I have worked extremely hard over the last few months to get to this position and realise there is a lot more hard work in front of me if I want to return and play international cricket again," he added.

Flintoff said once he returns to action, he would focus on playing domestic cricket for his county team Lancashire.

"If I am going to go through another six months of hard rehabilitation and training for long hours, I need a big incentive to be the driving force of that and playing for Lancashire and England again will become that," he said.

"During my time in rehabilitation I have been watching England playing well in South Africa and it has made me realise how much I have missed cricket," he said.

"For the first time in my career I have watched old footage of myself playing on Youtube and I want to get back to playing like that again."

The 32-year-old all-rounder said being on the sidelines for such a long period has helped him redefine his goals.

"My goals have changed since last summer. I trust the surgeon, Andy Williams, implicitly and he is very pleased with the progress of the micro-fracture operation.

"First and foremost I have to prove to myself that I can regain my fitness and perform for Lancashire. My first love remains playing for Lancashire and I want to help them win trophies and hopefully I can help achieve that later this summer," he said.