NEIL FAIRBROTHER is battling to be fit for Lancashire's Championship game against Essex at Chelmsford on Thursday.

Fairbrother missed the Sunday League victory over Gloucestershire with a calf strain, but Lancashire are desperate for his experience at Chelmsford.

They will definitely be without injured Jason Gallian and England captain Mike Atherton, and probably also John Crawley. Steve Titchard and Nathan Wood, currently playing for the seconds against Gloucestershire in Bristol, have been called into the squad, putting 22-year-old Wood in line for the first class debut.

He has scored 581 runs in six second team matches this season including two centuries at an average of 83.

And Paddy McKeown, Wood's 20-year-old opening partner, who has three centuries in his tally of 606 runs, is on stand-by if Fairbrother fails a fitness test tomorrow.

Lancashire are also without Peter Martin who joins Atherton and Crawley at Edgbaston, but if anything that solves a problem as it creates a space for Ian Austin, unlucky to be dropped for the last two Championship matches.

They have slipped to fourth from bottom of the table after the game against Gloucestershire was washed out as their third consecutive draw yesterday. Essex, who have Ronnie Irani and Nasser Hussain in the Test squad, but selector Graham Gooch available, are fourth with two wins out of four.

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