Asked whether he would have demonstrated similar largesse had the roles been reversed, Nielsen said: 'I like to think yes I would. I'm certain I would. In the end it was a fine gesture.

'We used the English team doctor to assess Brad's finger, and the process worked really well. Strauss was within his rights to have refused, but for the game's sake we're now going to have 11 fit blokes on each team, so I expect we would have done the same thing.'

Haddin, who hit a century in the first Test at Cardiff and a rearguard 80 in the defeat at Lord's, was keen to play through the pain, but Nielsen said: 'We were concerned that if he had played he would have had to have it injected every hour to keep because it was quite a significant crack in his finger. By playing with a fracture there was a chance he could have made it a lot worse.'

The incident brought back uncomfortable memories of the twisted ankle that ruled Glenn McGrath out of the corresponding fixture here four years ago, when Haddin himself inadvertently rolled a stray ball into the seamer's path.