WARRIORS loosehead Matt Mullan has revealed he won’t be going to the Rugby World Cup as he believes Martin Johnson’s 45-man touring party have already been informed they will be on the plane to New Zealand this autumn.

Although the official England squad announcement is not due until June 20, Mullan insists he won’t be involved unless a fellow Red Rose prop is ruled out of the touring party by injury.

However, that means the academy-produced front-rower, who featured for England against the Barbar-ians and is also currently playing for the second-string Saxons in the Churchill Cup, will be available for Worces-ter duty from the start of the Aviva Premiership campaign.

The 24-year-old said: “It has been nice to be playing for the Saxons again and to be back in the England team when we played the Barbar-ians.

“However, I think the players who are in the 45-man squad have already been told. I’ve not been told I am going, so I am presuming I would only be at the World Cup if someone gets injured.

“Everything feels good with my shoulder now and I came through the Saxons game at the weekend without any problems.

“I was in regular contact with the England set-up the whole time I was injured and often met up with (England assistant coach) Graham Rowntree as well as going to Twickenham for physio sessions on my shoulder.”

With the Land of the Long White Cloud far from his mind, Mullan is fixing his attention closer to home and is determined to reclaim the Warriors number one jersey.

After being sidelined by shoulder surgery until Jan-uary, the former Bromsgrove School student then struggled to dislodge first-choice loosehead Adam Black during Worcester’s Champion-ship-winning campaign.

However, veteran Black has since retired and Mullan is confident he will be Richard Hill’s go-to man, despite the arrival of Ceri Jones from Harlequins.

He said: “It was a frustrating season as I was out injured until January, which was when Richard told the squad he would be pretty much sticking with those players through to the Cham-pionship play-off final.

“I would like to think I would be first-choice at loosehead this season.

“Obviously, I was out injured for a long part of last season, so it was always going to be difficult to overtake Adam.

“I’m sure Ceri will want to be number one too.”

He added: “It will be tough being back in the Aviva Premiership. The Champion-ship provided us with some competition, but the Prem-iership will be a massive challenge.

“We will have to hit the ground running and make the most of our early games when other teams are missing key players because of the World Cup.

“I think it is too early to say if we are just aiming for 11th place as the new Worcester squad hasn’t met up together yet as we are all still on holiday.”