Vickery injury blow for England

12 April 2012

England have been dealt another major injury setback with the loss of World Cup winner Phil Vickery from their autumn Tests.

Vickery's club Wasps say he faces a rehabilitation period "in excess of three months" following a pending neck operation.

It will sideline him from Twickenham appointments with Australia, Argentina and New Zealand next month, and must put in serious doubt any participation during this season's RBS 6 Nations Championship.

Vickery's injury comes less than 24 hours after his fellow prop Andrew Sheridan was sidelined for up to four months following a shoulder dislocation.

A Wasps statement read: "Due to an exacerbation of neck pain suffered during the Wasps versus Racing-Metro game at Adams Park (on October 11), Phil Vickery has been closely monitored over the last week by the club's medical team.

"It was deemed necessary that Phil should be reviewed further by a consultant neurosurgeon.

"Subsequently a collective decision by Phil, the consultant, Wasps' medical team and England has been made this week to progress with surgery to his neck. This will entail a rehab period in excess of three months."

England manager Martin Johnson is now left with a front-row injury crisis.

He currently has just three fit props - Tim Payne, Julian White and David Wilson - in his senior elite squad, while England Saxons props Matt Mullan and Dan Cole are also injured.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in