ANDY Keast is refusing to wrap Mark Gabey up in cotton wool ahead of Worcester Rugby Club's showdown at Rotherham.

The second row man mountain, who has been one of the outstanding performers so far this season, collected a second yellow card of the campaign at Plymouth last weekend and another one against Wakefield next week would rule him out of the all important clash at Millmoor on November 23.

However, Keast is not convinced that keeping Gabey on the bench for the Wakefield clash would actually help him and will instead ask him to be professional if he gets the nod for next Saturday's National One match.

"We have talked about it," said Keast. "However, Mark is on the bench for today's cup match and if he misses the Wakefield game as well there is a chance of him losing some sharpness. If that happens then resting him would have proved to be counter productive.

"I think if Mark is included for the Wakefield game then we will ask him to be professional. He has been excellent for us this season, he does play on the edge but, in his position, you have to."

Meanwhile, Keast and director of rugby John Brain have been making sure the Sixways players' feet are well and truly on the ground this week after Worcester went to the top of the league table for the first time this season.

"We have had a number of meetings with the players and the message is that the hard work really starts now," Keast added.

"When you are top of the league, some people can get carried away with it but we refuse to. The only time we want to get carried away is in April if we are still top. It's all about keeping our feet firmly on the ground and reassessing what we did well at Plymouth and, more importantly, what we didn't do well.

"We have a lot of work to do to maintain our position and the players are well aware of that."