Although Vaughan insisted that he, rather than all-rounder Andrew Flintoff, had played a major role in the team's failure to reach the World Cup semi-finals, The Guardian had quoted him as saying that an incident involving "Freddie" Flintoff's drinking exploits had damaged team morale.

He was quoted as saying, "You have to be honest: the 'Fredalo' incident did affect the team. It did affect morale," referring to Flintoff being found on a pedalo, or paddleboat, at 4 am in the morning after their opening group match defeat against New Zealand in St Lucia.

Vaughan had insisted on Wednesday that he never used the word "Fredalo," as he wouldn't want to single out an individual for an incident which saw six players in all disciplined for late-night drinking, though an audio file on The Guardian's website seemed to prove otherwise.

In it, the England batsman is heard to say: "We had a great preparation week and then unfortunately incidents happened which did affect the team. You've got to be honest, it affected the morale, it affected the spirit."

The Guardian journalist said, "Was it...?" to which Vaughan replied: "Fred-alo. It's bound to affect team spirit. From then on suddenly you've got players I'd like to see go out and enjoy themselves, but no one would dare go out after that and you don't feel you can create a spirit."

Vaughan had earlier denied that he had used the word "Fredalo" while speaking at Old Trafford where the third Test against West Indies starts on Thursday, adding that he still had a good relationship with Flintoff.

"We are good mates," added Vaughan, who shares an agent with Flintoff. "I have a huge amount of respect for Andrew Flintoff."

England will be without Flintoff for all the series.

England are set to field an unchanged side as they look to go an unbeatable 2-0 up in the series with one to play.