DURHAM will go into tonight's floodlit match against Glamorgan at the Riverside in high spirits, despite evidence that their injury jinx is determined to pursue them until the end of the season.

Buoyed by Sunday's excellent win at Leicester, they will attempt to keep their National League division one survival hopes simmering without Paul Collingwood.

The England one-day player missed the match at Grace Road after waking up one morning with a stiff neck, which grew steadily more painful.

It turned out that a bulging disc was touching a nerve and after being put on a heavy course of steroids he expects to find out today whether he needs an operation.

If it comes to that he will not be able to play for eight weeks, which would rule him out of the ICC Trophy in Sri Lanka next month.

Because of a three-week lay-off with a knee injury, followed by one-day international commitments, Collingwood has played in only half of Durham's matches this season. He had hoped to play in three of the remaining six championship games before going to Sri Lanka, but that now looks unlikely.

When Durham won their floodlit home match against Hampshire last year, Collingwood scored 84 and Martin Love 89 as they shared a stand of 166.

With both injured, and Gordon Muchall starting the third and final Under 19 Test against India at Northampton yesterday, Durham have little option but to keep the same line-up for today's game, which starts at 4.10.

Stephen Harmison, the only member of England's five-man seam attack to come through the Trent Bridge Test unscathed, will rejoin the Durham squad for the championship match against Glamorgan starting on Friday.

He might have taken over today from Ian Hunter, whose five overs at Grace Road cost 42 runs, but the England hierarchy have requested that he shouldn't play.

Durham have staged one floodlit match a season for the last three years, and it's high time that the spectacle was accompanied by a thrilling finish.

After an easy win against Derbyshire they were well beaten by Hampshire then last season's match was ended by rain, bringing a comfortable win under the Duckworth/Lewis method.

Muchall will be available for Durham from this weekend as they have secured his release from the one-day matches against India, and there is further good news about Simon Brown.

The left-arm bowler returns after a calf injury today in the second team match against Surrey at Whitgift School, Croydon.

Although the Durham side includes a couple of trialists, South African paceman Dewald Pretoius is not among them.

"We have seen what we need to see of him and it has all been very impressive," said coach Martyn Moxon.

"We hope to sign our second overseas man in the next week or two and he is in the frame."

Durham: J J B Lewis (capt), N Peng, M A Gough, D R Law, A M Thorpe, G J Pratt, A Pratt, I D Hunter, N C Phillips, N Killeen, A M Davies

Glamorgan (from): R D B Croft, I J Thomas, M J Powell, M P Maynard, S P James, A Dale, S D Thomas, M A Wallace, M A Kasprowicz, A P Davies, D A Cosker, O T Parkin

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