I feared for my sight, says battered Tudor

Alex Tudor said that he initially feared he had sustained a serious injury after being hit above the eye by a delivery from Brett Lee near the end of the third Test here.

The Surrey seamer spent a night under observation in hospital after having eight stitches in the wound and looked like a prize fighter yesterday. He said: "When the ball first hit me I panicked big-time and straight away put the glove to my head and saw a lot of blood, but luckily I had Alec [Stewart] at the other end and Darren Lehmann at short leg and they calmed me down a little bit because I was panicking.

"My first reaction was to knock my helmet off and put my hand to my face just to see what had happened. I was a bit worried because as a kid I got hit near my left eye and needed three stitches, and I was panicking that something could have happened to my eye, and I just thank God that everything was OK.

"Brett came to see me straight away and had a word with me, as did the other Aussie guys. We had a bit of duel during the Test, it was one fast bowler trying to get rid of the other fast bowler... but he's a lot quicker than I am and I've just come off worse at the moment.

"I knew he was going to be after me because he wore a few when he batted and you just try and duck and dive a bit like a boxer, but unfortunately he hit me."

Tudor will remain in Perth with the other members of the England squad not included in the one-day series to work on skills and fitness.

In the Australian camp, the victorious Ashes captain, Steve Waugh, said he is determined to keep on fighting for a place in his country's World Cup squad despite being overlooked for their 30-man provisional party announced yesterday.

Waugh lost his place in the one-day side last year, but he hopes to regain it in time to be part of the team which defends the trophy Australia lifted at Lord's three years ago. "I'm obviously disappointed to miss out on a place as, ever since I was originally left out of the one-day side, it's been a goal of mine to get back into it," he said. "Having said that, I still believe there is a chance I can make it to the World Cup as players can come from outside that squad to make the final 15."

Michael Vaughan and Mathew Hoggard were the two most notable absentees from an inexperienced England one-day squad announced yesterday. The squad comprises eight of the Test squad and eight one-day specialists, who have been training in Adelaide since their arrival in Australia on 26 November.

"Vaughan is a little bit concerned about his knee and we want him to use the next two weeks building it up" the England coach, Duncan Fletcher, said. "Hoggard has been left out because his confidence has taken a bit of a knock recently and there are a couple of guys who we want to have a look at."

Included are Kabir Ali, Robert Key and Stephen Harmison, who have never played one-day cricket for England before. Harmison's selection is the major surprise – he bowled 16 wides in the first game of the tour at Lilac Hill and does not even play regularly for his county, Durham, in the domestic one-day game.

The squad will assemble in Sydney tomorrow and play the first of three warm-up games for the triangular series, also featuring Australia and Sri Lanka, against New South Wales on Friday.

ENGLAND ONE-DAY SQUAD (VB Series v Australia and Sri Lanka): N Hussain (Essex, capt), Kabir Ali (Worcestershire), I D Blackwell (Somerset), A R Caddick (Somerset), P D Collingwood (Durham), A Flintoff (Lancashire), S J Harmison (Durham), R C Irani (Essex), R W Key (Kent), R J Kirtley (Sussex), N V Knight (Warwickshire), O Shah (Middlesex), J N Snape (Leicestershire), A J Stewart (Surrey, wkt), M E Trescothick (Somerset), C White (Yorkshire).

AUSTRALIA: R T Ponting (capt), A C Gilchrist (wkt), M G Bevan, A J Bichel, J N Gillespie, M L Hayden, B Lee, D S Lehmann, D R Martyn, G D McGrath, S K Warne, S R Watson.

AUSTRALIA A (v England XI, 8 Dec; Sri Lanka, 14 Dec): J L Langer (capt), J P Maher, G S Blewett, N W Bracken, S R Clark, M J Clarke, R J Campbell, N M Hauritz, G B Hogg, M E K Hussey, A A Noffke, A Symonds, B A Williams.