Tindall may go under the knife

Bath centre faces shoulder examination this week

Bath and England centre Mike Tindall may require surgery on an injured shoulder after playing through the pain during his team's defeat to Treviso in the Heineken Cup on Saturday.

Tindall was tightly marked during his side's 29-23 Pool 2 defeat in Italy, as the home side stifled his midfield threat, and he will be examined in the next few days to find out whether surgery is required.

Bath's medical staff suspect the player also has a "developing stress fracture" in his foot which could rule him out of next weekend's crucial match at The Rec against the same opponents.

Matt Perry also suffered an injury in the defeat - a hamstring pull is likely to keep him out of action for the next four weeks.

Connolly was hugely disappointed with his side's display in a crucial match.

"We now need maximum points from our last three pool matches against Treviso and Leinster at home and Bourgoin away to stand any chance of making the knock-out stages as the eighth qualifier," said the Australian coach.

"We knew Treviso were a good side and we just didn't turn up in the first half. They punished every mistake we made and there were plenty of them and at a crucial stage of the game early in the second half, they got a critical decision which swung the game firmly their way."

Bath were trailing 19-6 when Irish referee Simon McDowell disallowed a Bath try for a late challenge on the Treviso fullback.

"The referee and one touch judge made a call which triggered a 10-point swing away from us and their full-back collided with Duncan Bell and made a meal of it and the touch judge's flag went up for the penalty," said Connolly

"Instead of getting a try and possibly a conversion to get us back into the match we ended up conceding another three points when they kicked the penalty.

"But we can have no complaints about the defeat. We didn't play well and they were the better side. They put us under pressure everywhere and forced us into making mistakes and conceding penalties.

"Three of them, all kicked, were given against us for front row infringements in the scrum - a similar situation to the one in Montferrand last season when an Irish referee penalised the same way in similar circumstances."

Wilkinson's week of wait

'I am frustrated as hell'

England's 2003 World Cup hero Jonny Wilkinson will discover later this week when he can return to action following his latest injury setback.

Wilkinson admitted to being "frustrated as hell" by being kept on the sidelines with a bicep problem during England's November internationals, which culminated in Saturday's narrow 21-19 defeat to Australia at Twickenham.

But the Newcastle fly-half is optimistic he will soon be fit to play for club and country - if selected.

However his replacement at fly-half, Charlie Hodgson, has been impressive for England - putting more pressure on Wilkinson to perform on his return.

"If I'm not the right player to play for England then I would never expect to be picked," Wilkinson said in his column in The Times.

"But as I say, that's a whole 'leap of thought' away. I'm sitting here, frustrated as hell, and I'm not thinking about England this and England that and the whole selection situation. I'm just thinking I can't wait to play.

"It should be soon, that I am cleared fit for selection. Probably this coming Saturday or next week.

"I'll be getting a scan this week, which will tell me where I stand.

"As ever, I've done a lot of hard work, but to be honest, the real hard bit has been the sitting around and watching," he added.