BOTH Oxfordshire and Lancashire are worried about the fitness of Mike Atherton before tomorrow's NatWest Trophy tie at Aston Rowant.

Atherton suffered a burst blood vessel in his finger when he was hit by a ball from Indian paceman Javagal Srinath early in his innings at Lord's yesterday.

It was his second finger injury on consecutive Sundays following last week's blow from Durham seamer Simon Brown - when again he batted on.

But it must put a doubt against Atherton for the NatWest game, especially as Lancashire won't want to take any chances before Thursday's Old Trafford championship fixture against Somerset, who have a formidable opening attack of Andrew Caddick and Andre van Troost.

Lancashire captain Mike Watkinson was waiting to hear from Atherton today but Steve Titchard has been put on standby with Jason Gallian and John Crawley already ruled out.

Atherton's absence would be a major blow for Oxfordshire and the Aston Rowant club, who have been preparing for weeks to welcome the England captain.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.