Wasps boss Ian McGeechan has moved to allay any fitness fears surrounding England captain Phil Vickery for next week’s RBS 6 Nations Championship opener against Scotland at Twickenham.
Vickery did not feature for Wasps in the 3-3 Guinness Premiership draw against relegation favourites Worcester as he rested a sore ankle.
Vickery had been in line for a place on the bench, but McGeechan decided it was not worth taking any risks.
McGeechan said: "Phil should be all right for next week.
"It was not worth risking him tonight, so don’t say that I never do anything for England. We haven’t done anything to put his place in jeopardy for next week."
Vickery’s England colleagues Josh Lewsey, Joe Worsley and Tom Palmer all played varying roles in a forgettable Sixways encounter, which saw honours shared through first-half penalties by Wasps fly half Dave Walder and Worcester full back Shane Drahm.
The result equalled the lowest-scoring game in Premiership history, matching a 3-3 draw between Sale and Leicester in February 2004.
Bottom club Worcester closed the gap to three points on their nearest relegation rivals, Northampton, but they are not relying on the Saints coming unstuck against leaders Bristol tomorrow.
Wasps remain in third place, firmly on course for the title play-offs, and McGeechan said: "We lost a lot of possession tonight and we lacked a bit of composure in attack.
"But I thought our defence was superb again – some of our defensive work was out of the top drawer – but we just didn’t have the composure to finish in attack."
Worcester have played two games more than Northampton and Warriors rugby director John Brain struggled to mask his frustration after seeing his team dominate territorially for much of the match.
Brain said: "I thought we should have won, but the reason we didn’t win was because of too many unforced errors.
"Our poor attacking play is the major thing we have got to work on, because I though we did more to Wasps in the set-piece than either Perpignan or Castres did in the Heineken Cup against them in recent weeks.
"For us, two points was not enough to get out of the game, although it is not a disaster."
