Jones - feels he is as quick as the best (Getty Images)

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When England finally open their troubled World Cup campaign against Holland on Sunday morning at the ungodly hour of 8am, their fastest bowler will be nursing his wounded knee 5,000 miles away in Cardiff.

Simon Jones, if he can bring himself to watch TV, will be waving his crutches in frustration when Nasser Hussain's men attempt to earn the first points of their campaign at Buffalo Park in East London.

The 23-year-old insists: "I could have been as quick as anything out there, even Shoaib Akhtar.

"I watch them all bowling at 90-odd mph but I know I can do it.

"Zimbabwe's captain Andy Flower told me I'm as quick as anything he's faced.

"But I'm stuck at home injured. It's been a very difficult time for me.

"The last four or five weeks have been the toughest of my life.

"I just can't watch the World Cup on the telly."

The unfortunate Jones has burst on to the international scene twice in the past 12 months only for his body to buckle.

He made his debut against India at Lord's last summer, scoring an unexpected 44 with the bat and taking four wickets with his brand of Welsh lightning.

But just as English cricket was celebrating the arrival of the Morriston Express, he was struck down by a side strain and spent the rest of the season undergoing intensive rehabilitation.

England coach Duncan Fletcher knew he had seen something special though - and he stuck with his new pace find when the Ashes squad was named.

Jones was back for the first Test in Brisbane on November 7 and looked to have slotted straight back into the groove when he took the early wicket of Justin Langer.

But then came the moment which cost him a year of his career: a diving stop on the Gabba boundary which destroyed his knee joint.

Jones recalls: "I think the thing that annoyed me most is that I remember thinking 'should I slide or pick it up?'

"Sliding has become a way of life for modern cricketers. It's the quickest way to get the ball back in and I'd done it a thousand times before.

"But as soon as I landed I realised I'd made a mistake ? and I knew it was a serious injury.

"After I'd been carried off on a stretcher I finally got through to the family watching at home.

"Mum was in tears, it was really upsetting. My dad Geoff, who had to give up his own pace bowling after 19 Tests with an elbow injury, just couldn't talk."

Scans revealed torn anterior cruciate ligaments and Jones was flown home for an operation performed by Dr Derek Bickerstaff, a Sheffield surgeon renowned for his work on the dodgy knees of countless footballers and Jones's England colleague Michael Vaughan.

And that's where we found Jones on Wednesday, on the three-and-a-half hour pilgrimage from Cardiff to Yorkshire, with Glamorgan's physio Erjan Mustafa in the driving seat.

Jones says: "This is our third trip to Sheffield. It's a long way but it's got to be done.

"I've been in Cardiff all week, doing intensive rehabilitation, it's going well. They used a patella tendon to repair the ligament.

"There's no plaster, just a leg splint to keep it straight but I'm on crutches.

"I'll be back, fitter, faster and stronger."

Then we return to the painful subject of watching the World Cup. Jones says: "It's very hard. I saw a bit of the opening ceremony and I watched Australia v Pakistan.

"I know England have all this trouble with the Zimbabwe thing, especially now they've had the point taken away but if they pull it together they can beat anybody. You never know in one-day cricket."