England [Images] skipper Michael Vaughan [Images], has rubbished reports of his premature retirement from the game due to a persistent knee injury that forced him to miss the Test and one-day series in India.

"It's nonsense. I hope to play for a long time yet," Vaughan, currently holidaying in the Caribbean, said.

Andrew Flintoff [Images] has been leading the team in Vaughan's absence after the Yorkshire batsman flew back home before the Test series began following soreness in his right knee.

Vaughan also missed the one-day series on the tour of Pakistan late last year as he returned home at the end of the Tests to get his knee operated.

The 31-year old has also seen a prolonged batting slump and has never been at his peak form that coincided with England's tour of Australia in 2002-03.

Since scoring a century in each innings against West Indies [Images] at Lord's in 2004, Vaughan has made 884 runs and only two hundreds in the last 27 innings. His average has gone down from the overall 42.94 to 35.36.