THE unfortunate Gavin Hamilton has suffered a big setback in his attempt to relaunch his first-class career with Durham.

The former Yorkshire all-rounder has damaged ligaments in a thumb and needs an operation, which will keep him out for two months.

"He's devastated," said coach Martyn Moxon. "It's really bad news for him and for us. He took a knock in the field last Friday, just when he felt he had taken a step forward in his attempts to get over his bowling problems."

Durham gambled on giving the 29-year-old Scot a one-year contract following his release by Yorkshire in the hope that he could regain the form which earned him an England cap four years ago.

But if other all-rounders like Gareth Breese and Ian Pattison now come into the side and do well Hamilton will face a fight for his place when he is fit.

Pattison joins the squad for the five days of cricket starting at Derby today, along with Breese, Neil Killeen and Graham Onions, who could make his championship debut.

Durham will go into the game with only one overseas player in Marcus North as Reon King was signed for only two games, and the West Indian will be replaced by either Killeen or Onions.

"We don't know what our line-up will be because the ground is so wet all the covers are on and we don't know what the pitch is like," said Moxon from Derby last night.

"But the squad we have gives us a lot of options. We wouldn't particularly want two spinners but I thought Gareth Breese played really well on Sunday so we could play him as a batsman who can bowl a bit if necessary.

"Ian Pattison scored a very good hundred for the A team against the university on Monday, so he could take Gavin's place at No 6."

The latest news of Shoaib Akhtar is that he will arrive on Saturday, so he is unlikely to play in Sunday's totesport League match at Derby but could play at Lord's the following day.

Derbyshire have suffered similar bad luck to Durham with their overseas players as Michael di Venuto, who had been appointed captain in succession to the departed Dominic Cork, has been ruled out for the season by a a back problem.

They also signed Tasmanian all-rounder Damien Wright, but he withdrew after knee surgery. The replacements are two more Australians, all-rounder Jon Moss and left-handed batsman Chris Rogers.

Derbyshire also have six other "foreigners" who qualify by virtue of having British passports, and among those likely to be in the team are paceman Mohammad Ali and his fellow Pakistani Adnan Hassan, who scored a century in the draw against Somerset last week.

Then there is Ant Botha, an all-rounder who bowls left-arm spin, plus his fellow South African James Bryant, a batsman who was with Somerset last season. Add in two more batsmen in Tasmanian Chris Bassano and Zimbabwean Andrew Gait and there is every chance that the only English regulars in the team will be new captain Luke Sutton and left-arm seamer Kevin Dean.

Derbyshire, who finished bottom last season, are now under the guidance of David Houghton, the former Zimbabwe captain and Worcestershire coach.

Houghton said: ''Notoriously we don't play well against Durham, so we'll be looking to change that,'' Houghton said.

''We've been playing pretty good championship cricket and we're getting a pattern to a our play. I just want us to concentrate on our own game, nobody else's.''

Durham (from): J J B Lewis (capt), M J North, G J Muchall, G J Pratt, N Peng, I Pattison, G R Breese, A Pratt, G D Bridge, L E Plunkett, M Davies, N Killeen, G Onions.

Read more about Durham here.