Darren Gough was today having cartilage operation after damaging his right knee last week while bowling in England's final one-day international in the six-match series against New Zealand.

Gough suffered a slight tear to his cartilage during a dynamic burst which brought him two wickets in his last over and helped England to square the series.

Yorkshire cricket chairman, Bob Platt, said: "Darren will rest for a fortnight after the operation and then begin his build-up with physical exercises.

"Fortunately, he should be fully fit for when we start our defence of the Championship against Surrey at Headingley on April 24."

There was more bad news for Yorkshire yesterday when Anthony McGrath was forced to drop out of the pre-season tour of Grenada which begins on March 20.

McGrath returned from Australia last week with a groin injury which he picked up around Christmas time and left him unable to play club cricket for Wanneroo after the first week of the New Year.

McGrath had a scan on Monday and will now undergo further tests to try to discover the extent of the problem but to miss out on the tour must put a question mark over his fitness for the start of the season.

Replacing McGrath in the tour party will be 18-year-old left-hander Andrew Gale, from Cleckheaton, an England Schools' player who has also captained Yorkshire Schools at Under 15s level.

Gale was the Yorkshire Academy's leading scorer in the Yorkshire League last season, hitting 690 runs at an average of 31.36 in cup and league matches.

Yorkshire have still to sign an overseas player as a temporary replacement for Darren Lehmann who is unavailable for the first three weeks of the season, but South African left-handed opener Gary Kirsten remains top of their list.

Updated: 09:30 Thursday, March 07, 2002