TIM Collier is an early doubt for Friday night's showdown with Sale.

Worcester Warriors' influential lock aggravated his pectoral injury during Saturday's 15-9 win at Harlequins and is now facing a race against time to make the Premiership clash at Sixways.

Collier, who signed a new three-year deal last week to end speculation over his future, was once again a key man during Worcester's weekend win but director of rugby John Brain admitted that he is now a doubt.

"It was a recurrence of his old injury," said Brain. "He's having treatment at the moment but he's a doubt for Friday. We don't think it's a serious recurrence but he's obviously done some damage there and we'll be monitoring him during the week.

"We certainly haven't ruled him out of Friday yet, however, and it's fair to say that the injury hasn't put him back to square one."

Meanwhile, Brain has told North-ampton that the pressure is mounting on them as Worcester pulled six points clear of the bottom with victory at the Stoop.

"If you were a Northampton supporter, I think you'd be worried," he said.

"At this moment in time, the league table doesn't lie and Northampton are on the bottom. We're certainly not safe and we've got a lot of work to do yet before we achieve anything like that.

"We've got a massive game on Friday against Sale and what is important is that we back up our performance at the Stoop."

Worcester overpowered Harlequins' scrum on Saturday and despite praise from their chief executive, Mark Evans, Brain was not getting carried away.

"One way to make excuses for a defeat is to elevate the standard of the opposition," said Brain.

"We're not getting carried away and our feet are firmly on the ground.

"When people criticise us, I don't tend to take much notice and the same goes for when you get praise. I'm happy with the way we performed in difficult conditions and the pack did a good job as a unit.

"What we're pleased about is the away win. We were a little concerned that we hadn't won away since Northampton and this victory, to some extent, gets that monkey off our back."