Darren Gough looks all set to help Yorkshire try to reach the semi-finals of the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy by turning out for them today in their tie against Essex at Chelmsford.

Gough yesterday saw a specialist for a report on his troublesome knee before checking into the team hotel and unless he experiences any soreness this morning he is expected to play.

It will be his first appearance for Yorkshire since September 10 last year when he took three for 15 against Gloucestershire Gladiators at Scarborough in the final Norwich Union League game of the season.

Matthew Hoggard also took a couple of cheap wickets in that contest and Yorkshire want another similar effort today from their two England pacemen.

The worry is, however, that both of them may not yet have re-discovered their best form and that they could be expensive.

Hoggard has recently been going through a bad patch with England and he did not play in Saturday's thrilling final against India at Lord's while Gough failed to take a wicket in a ten over spell which cost him 63 runs.

Hoggard has already been put to the sword once this season by Nasser Hussain who made mincemeat of him in the Benson and Hedges Cup quarter-final at Chelmsford when the England captain scored 136 not out and Essex won by seven wickets.

Yorkshire coach Wayne Clark, however, has no worries about Hoggard's place.

"He is a wicket-taker and he is always liable to take two or three wickets with the new ball which is what we want to happen against Essex," he said. "We also want to amend what happened down here in the B&H. Hussain and Ronnie Irani are the important wickets and we cannot afford to let Hussain do to us what he did last time."

It could be that the paceman who turns out to worry Essex most will be the enigmatic Craig White who suddenly sprang to life on Sunday and returned career-best one-day figures of five for 19 in the big win over Somerset Sabres at Scarborough.

White also top scored for Phoenix with 64 and if he can show the same explosive qualities today it may make Hussain wonder if the Yorkshireman still has some future left as an England player.

Yorkshire have met Essex twice previously in today's competition when it was known as the NatWest Trophy and the good news is that they were victorious on both of those occasions in 1982 and 1995.

The bad news is that in each year they then went on to lose in the semi-finals but at the moment all that Yorkshire are worried about is getting through to the last four and reviving their season.

Yorkshire (from): White, Wood, Silverwood, Vaughan, Lehmann, McGrath, Lumb, Fellows, Blakey, Dawson, Sidebottom, Gough, Hoggard.

* England fast bowler Darren Gough believes an increasing number of players will follow Graham Thorpe's lead and quit one-day cricket because of the rigours of the international game.

Following England's thrilling defeat to India in the final of the NatWest Series at Lord's, Thorpe announced his retirement from England's limited overs set-up game in order to try to preserve his life in the Test side.

And England teammate Gough can see more players doing the same in the future.

''I believe Graham has made the right decision and one more and more players will be forced into over the next few years,'' he said. ''An international player at both Test and one-day levels will probably get a maximum of four weeks off in any 12-month period.

''The strain on the body alone is enormous and it is going to get harder and harder."

* Australia ace Shane Warne admits he is puzzled as to why county champions Yorkshire are struggling under the leadership of compatriot Darren Lehmann.

''I know with Darren Lehmann in charge and doing well it's very surprising,'' Warne said.

''He's got a very good cricket brain, he's a wonderful player and has done well for Yorkshire."