KEY POINTS:
BRISBANE - The news continues to look ominous for Kyle Mills' World Cup chances.
Placed on the injury list this week after being hampered by a summer-long knee injury, the Auckland paceman has responded only marginally to a course of painkillers and was ruled out of last night's crunch one-dayer against England.
New Zealand officials shied away from deciding Mills' future yesterday but are resigned to the fact he needs surgery. They aren't overly confident he can last the distance at the cup.
Manager Lindsay Crocker said they were anxious to give the right-armer the best possible chance to strengthen his knee and shake off the pain, but were mindful time was running out before going to the Caribbean.
"Ideally we wanted him to play today but he hasn't come right yet, so we'll make a decision tomorrow," said Crocker.
"He's got two problems - one with the pain when he plays, and another with trying to sleep at night - because the knee's aching so much. The painkillers probably didn't work as well as we hoped."
Mills, one of New Zealand's most impressive pace bowlers over the past year, sat out the start of the tri-series as he tried to shrug off the knee complaint. He was brought in at the halfway point, at the expense of Andre Adams.
When he does go under the knife, the likely recuperation is expected to be about six months.
"I understand there's a little bit of a tear, and in order to repair it they have to make it worse before they put it back together again," Crocker said.
"It's one of those ones that will take quite a lot of time to come right; there's quite a long rehab. The problem is, if he were to get through to the World Cup then he'd probably have to miss the start of next season.
"But we'll have to get it done sooner or later."
Crocker echoed coach John Bracewell's comments when he stressed the injury wasn't aggravated by match play; the main problem was pain and trying to reduce it to a level in which he could operate effectively.
"We were hoping that the painkillers would take the edge off it and get things to a level where he can play through it, but we haven't quite been able to manage that yet.
"We'd like to have him right because he's such an important part of what we do, but if we can't we'll just have to bite the bullet."
On a brighter note for the pace attack, Shane Bond not only managed to back up for last night's game after playing Australia on Sunday, but performed impressively, taking four for 46 as England posted 270 for seven.
Needing to win to qualify for the best-of-three tri-series finals, New Zealand started brightly on the back of a double strike from Bond but later had to absorb intense pressure as Paul Collingwood and Andrew Strauss added 103 for the fourth wicket.
Collingwood, after a lean run, brought up his third ODI century off 118 balls, batting from the 14th over through to the 48th while sharing in an invaluable 59-run stand for the sixth wicket with Jamie Dalrymple.
When he was bowled leg stump by Bond for 106, England mounted a final flurry - including smashing 16 off the 50th over - to ensure New Zealand had a challenging run-chase.
