FREAK injuries are, by their very nature, uncommon, but that will be of no comfort to Matthew Hoggard who hurt his hand during a game of tag rugby with the England A side.

He was "spiked" by Yorkshire colleague Tim Bresnan, prompting questions as to how dangerous warm-ups involving football and rugby can be. I am perfectly happy to let players warm-up with a rugby ball or football. In fact, before most Wiltshire and Corsham games I am usually the first one out there.

It's great for team morale, especially on days when play has been suspended due to rain. Of course you have to be careful but some contact is unavoidable. Before the Minor Counties Knockout semi-final at Northumberland I warned our wicketkeeper Paul Davidge to watch his back in the warm-up because I was eyeing a return trip to Lord's.

Sadly he managed to evade my sliding tackle, but we lost anyway, so it didn't matter. On the subject of freak injuries I can only remember two that I have seen. One was a former Wiltshire player, Keith Tomlins, who got hit on the head with a cricket ball during a warm-up and had to be taken to hospital.

The other was at Corsham when Matt Holland slipped, got tangled in the nets and broke his arm. He was due to go on holiday the next day.