LONDON, Feb 26: England fast bowler Simon Jones needs a shin scan before he can fly to the West Indies to join the rest of the team , a spokesman for the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said on Thursday.

The 25-year-old Glamorgan player will be anxious to be given a clean bill of health after recently shaking off a long-term knee injury, which had sidelined him for nearly 15 months.

Jones was added to the squad on Monday after proving he had recovered from the knee problem on tour in India with England 'A'. "At the moment he is due to fly out on Friday but he is going to have tests on his shins first," said the ECB spokesman.

England's chairman of selectors, David Graveney, said he did not expect the problem to be serious but added that he did not want to choose half-fit players. "We have learned our lessons from previous times trying to cut corners with injured players and if he has got a stress fracture then obviously that would cause problems," he told the BBC.

"We have identified standbys. All I can say is that it isn't Richard Johnson or Andrew Caddick as they are recovering from injury," he added. Shin splints can put sportsmen out of action for weeks. The four-Test series opens in Kingston, Jamaica, on March 11. -Reuters