Andrew Flintoff faces a make-or-break fitness test in the nets tomorrow which will effectively determine whether he is to play a part in the early stages of the Ashes series this winter.

The Lancashire vice-captain will be put through his paces in a full net session at the Bellerive Oval, where the tourists will take on a strong Australia A team in a three-day match starting on Friday.

Flintoff's performance will be monitored carefully with England still not convinced he is fit enough to force his way into their selection plans following a double hernia operation last August.

He has played just once on the tour, with his recovery from surgery taking far longer than England expected, when he faced Queensland in the build-up to the opening Test defeat at the Gabba 10 days ago.

Since then he has had a scan to investigate the inevitable stiffness after his first competitive match in two months.

But unless he can prove his fitness and feature in this weekend's match, the tourists cannot possibly consider him for the back-to-back Tests in Adelaide and Perth which follow.

After that there is the first half of the intense triangular one-day series featuring Australia and Sri Lanka before the Ashes series is completed with the traditional Christmas and New Year Tests in Melbourne and Sydney.

Flintoff bowled at nothing like his normal capacity for 20 minutes today in the middle of the Bellerive Oval and will need to improve dramatically in the next 24 hours if he is not to become the third major casualty of the tour following injuries to Darren Gough and Simon Jones.

"He's still experiencing some soreness in the groin area," admitted Andrew Walpole, England's media relations manager.

"We're still hopeful he'll be able to play on Friday, but we'll re-assess the situation after he's tested out the injury in the nets tomorrow."

That minute practice for Flintoff and fellow seamers Alex Tudor, Steve Harmison and Chris Silverwood on one of the central wickets was one of the few meaningful exercises of the session with the tourists, who lost the opening Test by 384 runs last Sunday, once again opting for a light workout followed by golf this afternoon.

Since the Gabba hammering, captain Nasser Hussain is the only member of England's losing line-up to have had a net session, having taken the opportunity on the scheduled final day to have a bat in the indoor nets.

"It's an individual thing and people want to do different things," said Marcus Trescothick, who will lead the team this weekend while Hussain travels to Perth for a couple of days where wife Karen is expecting the imminent birth of their second child.

"The bowlers have had a bit of a run through on the middle, but you also need to schedule time off as much as you do practice sessions."