WE kick off our promotion bid on Saturday at Otley and, more than anything, I'm delighted to have made the game.

To say the last few months have been frustrating for me is somewhat of an understatement because of my Achilles injury.

It has been a really tough battle to come back from the tear and there were moments when I thought I wouldn't make it.

Inevitably, when you pass the 30-mark as a player you start to think 'just how long have I got left?', especially when you have a bad injury.

When I originally tore it back in April I didn't realise how bad it was and, in the months that followed, it really didn't seem to be healing that well. It has taken a lot of hard work, though, to get back and to play 40 minutes against Wasps on Friday night was a great bonus because I was told a while ago to target the first game of the season.

I have to manage the injury throughout the week at present because there is still a lot of scar tissue to get rid of. However, I'm feeling good and am over the moon to be back in the starting line-up as captain for our first National One match of the season.

Cross Green brings back many happy memories for me from last year. We travelled there in September and really enjoyed ourselves, scoring 10 tries in the process. David Officer was superb that day and he will be looking forward to returning after scoring a hat trick of tries last time around.

The first game is really about finding your feet again but, with only two new faces in the starting line-up, we should hopefully click quite quickly. Tommy Hayes will be playing alongside me at fly half and Daren O'Leary takes his place on the wing. Both have impressed me during a pre-season which, I believe, has been really positive for Worcester.

OK, we lost at Neath-Swansea but we played some nice stuff against Wasps on Friday night and the defensive display coupled with a solid set piece was very encouraging. We've obviously looked at the areas we need to improve upon on Saturday but we go into the match high on confidence.

We are not looking too far ahead this season. It is a bit of an old clich but we will concentrate on each individual game and not lose sight for one minute of our objective. Of course the overall aim is to win promotion but we cannot look any further ahead than those 80 minutes against Otley.

Looking at the strength in depth we have this season, it's clear that the coaches have done a tremendous job in recruiting such talent. Just looking at my own position, I know that Matt Powell is desperate for my shirt and he's looked the part in pre-season.

The pack looks awesome to me. On Saturday we have a second row of Mark Gabey and Dan Zaltzman while Craig Gillies will be champing at the bit to prove his worth. The back row, though, is just so impressive. Drew Hickey has a shoulder injury and is ruled out but with Christian Evans, Gavin Pfister and Richard Bates playing it is a really powerful unit. Add to that the electric Matt Evans on the bench and you can see the squad has improved immeasurably during the summer.

It's nice to see Ben Hinshelwood back for Worcester. He has been training with Scotland all week so is on the bench but I think everyone is delighted to see him playing again after breaking his leg during January's game with Otley at Sixways. Sport has a way of throwing up these little ironies and Ben, I'm sure, will be welcomed back by both sets of supporters in Yorkshire.