“I think I will be fit for the game,” Anderson said of the Ireland fixture. “Whether I play or not is probably another matter really. I definitely don’t want to risk it.

“I feel good, fine. I had a scan on the second day of that game. It was a little groin strain. It’s a 10-day recovery period, and I’m rehabbing already, running next week. It was the best result of a bad situation. I’m disappointed to have to pull out of a game but with what’s to come in the summer it was actually a pretty good result.”

“That was a different, more serious injury,” Anderson said of his 2019 experience. “I ripped my calf earlier that summer, and it was a real push to try to get fit for that first Test. I don’t feel like this is anywhere near that severity.

“I am desperate to be fit for the first Ashes Test. If that means missing the Ireland Test, so be it.”

James Anderson was speaking at a partnership launch announcing Radox as an Official Partner of England Cricket.