WORCESTER Warriors director of rugby John Brain has confirmed that captain Pat Sanderson's back injury is not the same as the one that kept him out of the side over Christmas.

The flanker has been ruled out of England's first three Six Nations mat-ches and Brain believes it will be six weeks before he is able to play again.

Sanderson came off in Friday night's match at Bristol and went for a scan the following day, which showed he had a displaced fracture on one of the spurs in his back -- not the same area that troubled him recently.

"It's not a reoccurrence," said Brain. "It's a new injury but it is in a place which is very, very close to the old one. He needs to see a specialist."

So as well as missing out on England's fixtures against Wales, Italy and Scotland, Sanderson will not be available for Worcester's Premiership clashes with his former club Sale and the trips to Leicester and Leeds.

Brain added: "He's disappointed about it. It's just one of those things."

Sanderson was replaced at half-time on Friday night by Tom Harding and the New Zealender's performance certainly made an impression on Brain.

"We have a top-quality replacement for Pat in Tom Harding," he said. "If you examine the video of the second-half you will see he was impressive."