WHEN Ben Hinshelwood decided to hang up his playing boots last week, Worcester lost one of it's finest servants.

The 28-year-old centre has been at the heart of the club's journey to the forefront of the domestic game and he epitomises the team spirit that has helped bring about that extraordinary rise through the ranks.

Hinshelwood has been battling a back injury for the last 18 months. The problem was caused by two torn discs and playing rugby was enough to send his back into painful spasms.

"I was hopeful of keeping on playing for a while longer," he said. "I've had a lot of problems so I saw a specialist and his advice was to stop playing.

"I have to think about my future.

"There have been a lot of times when I've had problems before and after games. That's a symptom of the damage I've been doing to myself.

"I was in quite a bit of pain and that's what prompted me to see the specialist."

Born in Melbourne, Hinshelwood studied commerce at Sydney University, where he came to the attention of Anthony Eddy, now head coach at Worcester.

A brief career in banking followed and it was his job that first brought him to the UK. After a spell with Bedford, he arrived at Worcester in 2001.

Like his father Sandy, Hinshelwood became a Scotland international, making his debut against Canada in June 2002.

When Eddy arrived at Sixways in the summer he insisted that Hinshelwood's game would have made him as big a success in the Southern Hemisphere as he has been in Europe.

"I'm sure Ben would have been picked up by one of the Australian Super 12 teams but he had an opportunity and came over here to play, not only for the club, but also from an international perspective he played for Scotland," said Eddy.

"He achieved that, which was a credit to him."

When invited to look back on the highlights of his career, it is typical of Hinshelwood that he focuses on team accomplishments rather than individual achievements.

"Getting promoted with Worcester a couple of seasons ago was great," he said. "And staying up in the last game of last season was a huge achievement for us."

The pinnacle of his international career was playing in the 2003 World Cup and Hinshelwood won the last of his 19 Scotland caps in this year's Six Nations match with Italy.

He would have been involved in the autumn internationals but he called time on his Scotland career in October, hoping that would help him to prolong his playing days in the Premiership.

"That was the plan," he said. "Unfortunately, just playing rugby for Worcester was enough to aggravate it."

Hinshelwood has vowed to watch his club team-mates as many times as possible but, as pleased as he is at the club's position in the higher reaches of the Guinness Premiership, it makes it all the harder for him to walk away at this moment in time.

"It's a bit frustrating that I've put in quite a few seasons in the first division and now that we're doing well in the Premiership I have these problems," he said.

Pat Sanderson, Hinshelwood's successor as club captain at Sixways, is in no doubt about the contribution his team-mate has made.

"Ben has been great for Worcester. It's very sad indeed. It's going to be hard to replace him.

"I suspect it was quite strange for him, waking up on Monday morning and not going to training. But it won't be so much the training he misses, it will be the banter."

But now Hinshelwood has the time he needs - time for his body to recover and time for his mind to work out the next move.

A return to banking is one of his options but, whatever he chooses to do with the rest of his life, Hinshelwood can be proud of the part he played in making Worcester the success story it now is.