Captain Michael Vaughan is fighting to be fit for next week's first Test against India after a recurrence of his knee injury.

Vaughan, 31, had a cortisone injection in his right knee on Wednesday and was ruled out of the first-class match with the Indian Board President's XI. Fast bowler Simon Jones was also unavailable due to a stomach bug while Paul Collingwood, a possible replacement for Vaughan, was ruled out by a back problem.

To cap it all, Kevin Pietersen, the one batsman to truly impose himself at the IPCL ground, was forced to retire hurt with a back injury.

England's preparations for Wednesday's Test series opener in Nagpur were thrown into further chaos by Shaun Udal's sore abdomen.

They managed a below-par 238 after Marcus Trescothick won the toss, before the home team replied with 93 for one.

Vaughan has undergone three operations on his knee, the first before his wonderful Ashes series in 2002-03 and the latest in December.

''It is a concern, as captain he has done well for us and he is a major player,'' said coach Duncan Fletcher. ''We have always had this worry that in the future he might not be fit.''

Vaughan missed the opening Test in Pakistan after the problem flared up in a warm-up match and opted out of the one-day series to undergo an operation.

His recovery appeared to be going to plan until the past couple of days.

''We always had this window to try to get him fit with the maximum amount of rest we could afford before the tour,'' said the team's chief medical officer Dr Peter Gregory.

''We were very happy with his progress, the little bit of soreness was predictable.

''It just got worse in the nets yesterday so we decided to inject his knee.

''That will take at least 48 hours to take effect."

The team management have not called for reinforcements yet, preferring to allow a few days to reassess the health of the camp.

By then more will be known of Pietersen's condition, which hampered his batting shortly after lunch.

From a position of 232 for six, however, a blitz of inswinging yorkers from Munaf Patel concluded things in a hurry, rearranging the stumps to dismiss Jones, Matthew Hoggard and Steve Harmison.

* Former captain Sourav Ganguly looks to have an uncertain future in Test cricket after India's selectors put their faith in youth for the first Test.

Ganguly was the highest profile absentee from the 15-man India squad.

He lost the captaincy to Rahul Dravid last year after falling out of favour with coach Greg Chappell but he is not the only key absentee.

Paceman Zaheer Khan, opener Gautam Gambhir and Ajit Agarkar were also omitted while there was a first Test call-up for 17-year-old leg spinner Piyush Chawla. Wasim Jaffer, who made 48 yesterday, is likely to open the batting.