Emergency Ward XV

There was the proverbial good and bad news for Sir Clive Woodward as the Lions supremo gets set to name his 44-strong touring party early next week for one of the most anticipated tours in New Zealand rugby history.

Cheering him up will be the return to the rugby field of loose forward Richard Hill, centres Will Greenwood and Gordon D'Arcy and the approaching return to fitness of midfield back Mike Tindall.

Worrying him will be the latest injury to powerhouse prop Phil Vickery; a neck injury suffered by Leicester strongman Julian White; and the loss, for the rest of the club season, of Scottish prop Tom Smith, who is out for four to six weeks with a fractured hand but who said, perhaps somewhat hopefully, that he will be available.

When you add to the list the name of former England prop Trevor Woodman, so debilitated by a back injury that he is not even playing club rugby, prop is the biggest problem for Woodward.

It's probable that White will tour after treatment to his injury but Woodward will watch anxiously as Leicester progress towards the finals of the Heineken Cup.

However, neck injuries can be slow to heal and White - recognised as the strongest scrummager in the British Isles - will be a key part of Woodward's plans. So, too, would Vickery have been. At his best, Vickery is not only a presence at scrum time but a runner and passer of surprising speed, with ball skills not many Northern Hemisphere props can claim.

However, the big Cornishman has not been at his best for some time and his latest setback - his broken arm has not reset properly - makes missing the plane to New Zealand more probable. Smith, meanwhile, was less of a selection certainty and, now that he also has a fracture to contend with, seems even less so, although the Lions' worries at prop could still mean a place is found for him.

Hill played 40 minutes in an A-league match for Saracens last week - his first action on a rugby field since October. A fit Hill is a certain selection.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY