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Neck injury may give Coxy his big chance
Miles Benjamin: Boosted Worcester Warriors' strength on the wings.
Miles Benjamin: Boosted Worcester Warriors' strength on the wings.

I'VE had a bad neck injury that I've been carrying for the last few months and I got whacked on it again against Montpellier, so I'm not sure whether I'll be able to make the Wasps game on Saturday.

I am desperate to play, but we have some pretty important matches coming up and if I injured my neck further, it might rule me out for the rest of the season.

You can't keep dipping into the same well and sometimes you have to mix things up a bit - that is ok though as we have some great lads coming through in our squad.

It is important that we use the squad as a whole when there are so many games to play during the season.

If I don't play, there is a good chance Matt Cox could be involved. It would be a big challenge for him, but he is certainly not afraid of the physical aspect.

Wasps are a very physical side, but Coxy won't back away from that - he is another one of the young talents at Sixways and won't take a backward step if he plays. He puts his head in there and does the nitty-gtritty stuff well - he is a tough lad.

Wasps pride themselves on their physicality and, if we don't match them in that department, we won't win. They have plenty of dangerous and talented players, such as Lawrence Dallaglio, James Haskell, Danny Cipriani and Paul Sackey.

We did our homework againt Montpellier and they were pretty much what we expected. Still, it was tough for us because we had so many guys carrying injuries.

Some of our attacking play was fantastic but we let ourselves down a bit in defence as we didn't quite have the right intensity because of the injuries.

Now we will face Newcastle at home in the semi-final of the European Challenge Cup and we will both have all to play.

They have a huge amount of talent in their squad and if they get it right they are very good - they will come to Sixways expecting to win. However, we owe them one for the way they beat us in the league match at Kingston Park.

If we can make it to the final, we will play Sale or Bath and the intensity of that game would be like a Guinness Premiership mat-ch because cups don't come easily.

We have got two games to go and if we win both of them, there is a great prize on offer at the end. it would give us the chance to be assessed at the highest level, which is what you want as a player.

Rico Gear has been injured at times this season, but he has proved that he is class and a try machine.

Miles Benjaim and Marcel Garvey have also been playing fantastically well and that is the kind of strength in depth that we will need.

Finally, I want to mention Dan James. He is a young lad who was in our junior section before getting paralysed playing rugby.

His aunt and uncle will be running the London Marathon on Saturday and we as a club want to raise the profile - as well as plenty of money - for his charity.

Anyone who'd like to help out can make a donation at: justgiving.com/danjamestrust.

9:15am Thursday 10th April 2008

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