PAUL Collingwood remained upbeat yesterday, despite his Durham and England colleague Steve Harmison being ruled out of tomorrow's Friends Provident Trophy final against Hampshire.

Scans revealed bleeding in the paceman's back, ending his desperate bid to be fit for the historic occasion of Durham's first one-day final at Lord's.

The problem is thought to have stemmed from a muscle injury and is unrelated to the hernia operation he had four weeks ago.

Harmison said: "I'm heartbroken I won't be playing. The severity of the injury has surprised everyone and the timing couldn't be worse. Having played for Durham through the lean years I was looking forward to making my mark in their first final."

He will be out for the rest of the season and Collingwood said: "We'll miss his pace and bounce, and he also brings to the squad his experience of playing in big games. I'm sure he'll come and lend his support and help to make the players as calm as possible."

Durham will still have three seamers in their team in Liam Plunkett, Ottis Gibson and one-day specialist Neil Killeen, plus off-spinning all-rounder Gareth Breese.

Graham Onions or former New Zealand Test off-spinner Paul Wiseman could step in, but Collingwood said: "We have options. With me and Dale Benkenstein to bowl as well, we could play an extra batsman. I imagine we'll look at the pitch before making a decision.

"It's a massive occasion for the club and it's extra special for me, having been involved for ten years. For Durham to get to a final shows how much ambition the club has. What they have created means we as players have everything we need to get the best out of ourselves.

"We've been the underdogs for 15 years, so it doesn't matter if we go to Lord's as second favourites."

"But we feel the teams are equally matched.

"With a full house it's going to be a similar atmosphere to a Test match. I'm thoroughly looking forward to it and want to put a big performance in.

"But I don't feel under pressure coming back into this Durham side because everyone knows his role and it's a good team with a lot of match-winners."

Durham will leave for Lord's today and are likely to take a squad of 15. If they decide to play an extra batsman, a Harmison could still feature as Steve's 21-year-old brother, Ben, has been batting consistently well and his medium pace bowling is also improving.

Gordon Muchall, Garry Park and Will Smith are also contenders, although Smith's recent absence from both forms of the game makes him the outsider, despite missing only one of the Friends Provident group games.

Harmison senior's latest injury might mean an early recall for Mark Davies, who has been loaned to Nottinghamshire for a month.

Durham's only game next week is the NatWest Pro40 League match against Somerset at Taunton, which has been put back four days to Thursday as Sunday is the reserve day for the Friends Provident final.

So Davies could play at Trent Bridge in Nottinghamshire's county championship division two game against Northamptonshire starting next Wednesday, but there is a good chance Durham would want him back a week later for the four-day match against Worcestershire.