ngland prop Phil Vickery sacrifices Six Nations Championship for long-term gain

Vickery will miss the RBS Six Nations Championship after his return from a neck injury was delayed

Phil Vickery’s hopes of returning from his latest neck injury in time for the RBS Six Nations Championship have gone after London Wasps revealed that he will not be fit to start training for at least a further eight weeks.

The England prop and former captain was hurt playing against Racing Métro in an Amlin Challenge Cup tie in October. After surgery, Vickery had hoped to resume playing this month.

Tony Hanks, the Wasps director of rugby, said that Vickery had not suffered a setback from his operation and that initial estimates of the recovery time were always likely to be fluid. “He had pretty major and invasive surgery,” Hanks said. “His rehab is going well. If it takes an extra two or three weeks to make him right long term, we will do that. We don’t want him to finish this season; we want him to have next year as well and the World Cup would be a great way to go out.”

The 33-year-old has repeatedly come back from serious back surgery, not least in 2003 on his way to a World Cup winner’s medal. Hanks’s comments suggest that the next World Cup in 2011 in New Zealand remains in his sights.

The club’s match away to Leicester today is the only fixture to survive the bad weather. Worcester Warriors’ game against London Irish fell victim to the snow and ice yesterday afternoon. Despite the pitch at Sixways having been covered since Christmas, Chris White, the referee, inspected the surface yesterday and ruled it unfit because wind had got under the covers and had frozen the dead-ball areas.

“Player welfare has to be our prime concern and with no improvement in the forecast and therefore the conditions, we had no option but to postpone the match,” Phil Winstanley, the rugby director at Premier Rugby, said.

The 24,000 sell-out match at Welford Road will give Danny Cipriani a stage to make a late impression on Martin Johnson, the England team manager, before he names his squad next week for the Six Nations. The 22-year-old starts at fly half after featuring at full back in the home defeat by Newcastle Falcons last weekend.

“He is hungry,” Hanks said. “It will be like a Test match and Test-match decision-making will be required, which Danny can provide.”

Mark van Gisbergen slots in at full back and Paul Sackey and Ben Jacobs are recalled at wing and centre respectively. Ben Broster comes in at prop. For Leicester, Anthony Allen is ruled out by an ankle injury, so Jeremy Staunton starts, as do Marcos Ayerza, Mefin Davies, Lewis Moody and Craig Newby in the pack. Tom Croft returns from injury on the bench.

• The future of Coventry has been secured after they were sold out of administration. A new company, Coventry Rugby Ltd — chaired by Peter Rossborough, the former England full back — has bought the Championship club for an undisclosed sum.