England outhalf Jonny Wilkinson has played down concerns over his fitness and says he will be ready for the tourists’ first Test against Australia in Perth a week on Saturday.
The 31-year-old suffered bruising below his ribcage in Toulon’s Amlin Challenge Cup final defeat against Cardiff Blues on May 23 and has yet to resume contact work as he continues to recover from his injury.
Wilkinson will miss England’s opening tour fixture against the Australian Barbarians on Tuesday but reckons there is no danger of him being ruled out of the trip.
He said: “Injury-wise I’m fine. In terms of the rest of it that is up to these guys. It’s nice to be here with easily enough time to get ready to be on the training field at the same time as everyone else.
“I took a knock in the back in our last game of the season. I’ve already had a week (without contact work) and I’m being held back by the physios rather than anything else at the moment. I want to get out there, but they are telling me to take a few more days.”
Wilkinson admitted that after the injury problems that have ravaged his career since his drop-goal secured England’s 2003 World Cup triumph in Sydney, the prospect of playing in a fourth World Cup is a major motivation as England’s build-up to next year’s global showpiece begins in earnest Down Under.
“For me it’s an exciting year ahead and the process of getting older and playing rugby has actually been quite interesting to me, especially the last couple of years” said the former Newcastle man.
“I’ve made some big decisions in terms of where my career has gone and I’ve enjoyed the learning process. One thing I’ve learned from that is that you can’t say how long you will play for.
“When I was 18 I was saying I wanted to play until I was 45 — that’s changed abit now.
“A World Cup, regardless of how many more you have to play, is enough to focus on and if you get the chance is a big, big thing. To play one more would be enormous and that’s the aim.”
Team manager Martin Johnson will use the tour to help him trim his 44-man selection down to 32 by the time he names his elite-player squad for next season in July.
“The build-up starts now in terms of World Cup preparation and it gives some guys genuine opportunity to advance themselves,” the former Leicester lock said.
“We have a big squad deliberately, we’ve brought 44 players, and it’s the last time we’ll be on tour before the World Cup in 2011.
“If we’d just played the two Test matches and brought 30 players then a certain number of guys wouldn’t have played, so this gives guys a genuine opportunity to be involved in the senior group and to try to force into the Test squad.
“We have to name 32 on July 1 to go into next season so there’s a lot of competition for spots.
“We’ve got a good mix of a squad. There’s the core that’s been there this year, but also a number of guys with Test match experience who haven’t been involved for a while like Charlie Hodgson and David Strettle.
“There’s other younger guys coming in who played on Sunday (against the Barbarians at Twickenham) like Dave Attwood and Jon Golding, and older guys who have played well in the Premiership this year.”
Johnson, who enjoyed his finest hour as a player when lifting the World Cup in Sydney in 2003, is looking forward to seeing how his entire squad performs on this tour against a Wallabies line-up that he rates highly.
“Some of their (Australia’s) performances in the autumn in the UK were impressive,” he said. “Obviously they lost in Scotland, but their performance in Wales showed that they looked to be in a good place going into the World Cup. As a group you can see that they are going in the right direction.”