DURHAM could hand a first-class debut to Mark Davies at Lord's today after deciding not to risk Simon Brown in their championship match against Middlesex.

With Steve Harmison ruled out by a severe chest infection, it could come down to a choice between Davies and James Brinkley.

One other possible change from the side which lost to Sussex last Saturday would see Jimmy Daley returning after appearing in only the first two of the ten championship games Durham have played.

A hamstring injury kept him out for three weeks, followed by a broken thumb suffered on his return in the second team.

"Jimmy has been in good form in the second team recently," said skipper Jon Lewis. "Our selection will depend on the pitch, but there's a good chance that Mark Davies will play.

"Middlesex don't have a lot of say in the preparation of the Lord's pitch after a Test match, so we are not sure what to expect."

It will be big surprise, however, if the pitch does not give some help to the spinners as Phil Tufnell is Middlesex's leading wicket-taker.

His 42 scalps this season have taken him to 994 championship wickets and he will have the notable landmark of 1,000 in his sights in this match.

If Durham decide spin is unlikely to play much part it could put Michael Gough under threat, although the more likely candidate to make way for Daley is Martin Speight.

He prolonged his run in the team with his match-saving 67 not out against Warwickshire, but surrendering for a duck with a poor stroke against Lancashire on Wednesday will not have helped his cause.

Brown and Neil Killeen both came safely through the second team game against Gloucestershire this week, but it was felt that a two-day defeat was not a sufficient work-out to risk them in a four-day game.

Durham won by one wicket on their last championship visit to Lord's three years ago, but with six games left they currently lie 40 points behind third-placed Middlesex in division two.

Durham will be up against one former player in Robin Weston and possibly two if Mike Roseberry is also selected.

Since coming into the team for the last five matches Weston has made 408 runs at an average of 58.28, which is rather better than the 9.52 he averaged for Durham.

Durham (from): J J B Lewis (capt), M A Gough, M L Love, P D Collingwood, N Peng, J A Daley, M P Speight, D R Law, A Pratt, G D Bridge, N G Hatch, A M Davies, J E Brinkley

Middlesex (from): A R C Fraser (capt), A J Strauss, M A Roseberry, S P Fleming, O A Shah, R M S Weston, B L Hutton, P A Weekes, D C Nash, T F Bloomfield, S J Cook, P C R Tufnell.

* Injured captain Nasser Hussain will enter the third Test against Australia without any match practice in the last three weeks after failing to recover in time for Essex's championship match at Northampton.

Hussain, who broke his left little finger during the opening Test defeat by Australia at Edgbaston, had hoped to return and give himself vital practice before assembling with the remainder of the squad at Trent Bridge on Tuesday.

England are expected to name him in Sunday's squad and intend to give him as much time as possible to recover, but they had hoped their captain would have a chance to play before facing Australia again.

''It's going to take time,'' said Essex coach Keith Fletcher. ''At the moment he's not fit, he's not even fit enough to put on a glove.''

Hussain has also been ruled out of making a second XI appearance before Trent Bridge to give the injury time to heal.