THE bad news is that I'm not going to make Saturday's trip to Pertemps Bees.

I was absolutely gutted earlier in the week because I genuinely thought I had a real chance of making the game.

But it's just come too soon with the rib injury still causing me quite a bit of pain.

I've had a chat with the coaches John Brain and Andy Keast and they've been very good about it but I'm still miserable! You just want to be out there training or playing and with this injury, you cannot do anything until it's healed. It's comforting in a way to know that Matt Powell is doing such a good job for the team but, as a professional player and captain, you really want to be doing your stuff on the field.

What I've said to myself is to start the season all over again on December 27 against Coventry. I'll be working hard over the Christmas period to make sure I'm 100 per cent for that game. In the meantime, I'll be cheering on the boys at Sharmans Cross Road.

It is a great game in the offing. I don't think it has all the ingredients to be a classic match in terms of quality but I'm sure it will be a really compelling game for the supporters of both sides.

The two clubs are local rivals and Birmingham would like nothing more than to turn us over and put a spanner in our works. They have a massive former Worcester contingent among their ranks and that was added to in the summer with the signings of Craig Chalmers, Jim Jenner and Tom Richardson.

Those three will be desperate to prove our coaches were wrong to release them and along with other ex-Sixways players such as Nick Baxter and Nathan Carter, it is sure to give them that extra bit of motivation. When you face your old club it does give you an extra 20 per cent and they will really be fired up for the occasion. They led the table for a long time at the beginning of the season and have maintained their top-three position which is credit to them. Make no mistake, this is a tough game for us but the boys are really relishing the challenge.

People like Tony Windo and Neil Lyman have been there and done it all before at this level and they will be loving every minute of the encounter in Solihull. We have the experience to deal with the physical challenge and I am confident that we are professional enough to keep our discipline because, for sure, there will be provocation.

It will be interesting to see just what the game-plan is. We have such a variety to our game at the moment that we can take an opposition on through many different avenues. If you were an opposition coach, you would struggle to break down our game because one week we might run the ball, the next we might keep it tight and stick to a driving game.

People saw just glimpses of what we are capable of against Penzance and Newlyn at the weekend. We won the match 71-10 but I think we could have improved our performance quite a bit. What we were pleased about, though, was that we scored tries in a variety of ways and that illustrates what a threat we can be all over the pitch.

I have absolute sympathy with Duncan Roke who will, like me, miss the game in Solihull. He pulled up during the Penzance match and it was clear he was in a lot of pain. It's so frustrating as a player when you think you've come through the worst of it and then the injury rears its ugly head again.

It's certainly not a game to miss either as a player or a supporter so, as it's the last game before Christmas, I would urge every Worcester fan to make the short trip and roar the lads on. The vocal support always makes a difference to the players and if we can make it feel like a home match, it would help the side enormously.