Andrew Flintoff has said that his former teammate Simon Jones “could have been Jimmy Anderson” had the fast bowler stayed injury-free throughout his career.

Flintoff and Jones formed one half of England’s famous fast-bowling foursome that helped England claim the 2005 Ashes 2-1 against an Australia side widely regarded as one of the best to have ever played the game. Jones claimed 18 wickets at an average of just 21 in the four Tests he played that series. After leaving the field injured during Australia’s second innings of the fourth Test, Jones, then only 26, never took part in a game of international cricket ever again.

On the latest Sky Sports Cricket Podcast, Flintoff claimed that Jones could have had a career similar to that of James Anderson, England’s all-time leading wicket-taker in Test cricket, had he stayed injury-free.

“Simon Jones for me, if he could have stayed fit with his knee and the thing in Brisbane didn’t happen, he could have been Jimmy Anderson,” said Flintoff. “You know what, he swings it faster, he reverse swings it better than nearly anyone I know.”

By the end of the 2005 Ashes, a series in which Anderson took no part in, Anderson had taken 24 fewer Test wickets than Jones, a man three-and-a-half years his senior.