BBC SPORT | Cricket | England | Butcher in fitness race

Mark Butcher will be given until Tuesday morning to prove his fitness for the third Test against Sri Lanka.

The Surrey batsman requires surgery on a knee problem but was named in England's 13-man squad and hopes to play at Old Trafford before undergoing an operation after the match.

He will receive treatment in the build-up to the game and must convince the management he can get through five days.

"I'm going to have to have it operated on at some point but whether I can make it through the next game or not we will find out on Tuesday," Butcher told BBC Radio 5 Live.

If Butcher, 29, was to break down during the match with the same problem England would not be permitted a substitute fielder.

Dominic Cork dropped by England for the third Test

John Crawley would replace him at number three, the position he occupies for Hampshire, if Butcher fails to recover.

"With regards to Mark, we will test his left knee on Tuesday morning and we will be looking to make an early decision in fairness to both him and John Crawley," said chairman of selectors David Graveney.

"If there is still a problem for Mark and he is not fit let's get him sorted. Making the decision on that day will also allow John to mentally prepare for the match.

"John got a couple of scores in excess of 30 at Lord's, and his average this season is pretty impressive.

"I know he enjoyed returning for that first Test match and his omission at Edgbaston was purely tactical.

"He may now get another chance and he and Murali know each other reasonably well, so that should be a good contest."

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Simon Jones could be in line for his Test debut with England, currently leading 1-0, needing to wrap up the series, as they failed to do against Pakistan at the Manchester venue last year.

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Graveney said that weather conditions would play a part in decisions over the final make-up of the side, with rain forecast for Wednesday.

"Although traditionally hard and with pace, we will have to wait until next week to assess the effect of any rain which it might have had."

Dominic Cork is the only change from the 14-man squad on duty at Edgbaston with England trimming their party down for the final Test.

"We had the luxury last time of knowing the county matches started on a Friday," Graveny added.

"It would not have been fair on Dominic and not fair on his county in particular had we called him and pulled him out of a championship game.

Graveney played down fears over the fitness of Ashley Giles after the Warwickshire left-arm spinner limped out of Friday's B&H Cup victory over Lancashire with calf trouble.

"It's not too much of a problem," he said. "It's not the same leg as he suffered Achilles trouble in last year but we'll find out more on Monday."

England squad: N Hussain (captain), M Trescothick, M Vaughan, M Butcher, G Thorpe, A Stewart (wkt), J Crawley, A Flintoff, A Tudor, A Giles, A Caddick, M Hoggard, S Jones.