England winger Sackey sees a blessing in disguise

The 28-year-old Wasp had been prepared to go on ignoring the damage for this month's two Tests in New Zealand before a specialist ruled him out because of a knee condition.

Surgery: Paul Sackey

'I hurt my hand last year and just didn't have time to get it fixed,' he said. 'It's been painful but the adrenalin and emotion of every game means you don't think about it. I've had this problem all season and now I've got the chance to get it repaired. But I'm massively disappointed to be missing the tour.

'Once you get into the England set-up, you don't want anyone else to come in and have the opportunity.

'I waited a long time to get into the team and I want to stay there as long as possible. I'd been psyching myself up for the tour from the day I was picked.

'They sent me to see a specialist about my knee a few days ago and he said: "The knee is not right so the sensible thing is to stay at home and get it right through extensive rehab".

'In terms of my longterm future it's the best thing to do. In that respect it may prove to be a blessing in disguise and while it's hard to appreciate that right now, there's no question that the knee has been getting weaker with every game I've played. I haven't trained with Wasps for the last three or four weeks.

'I don't like to wear any sort of strapping. If the opposition see you all taped up, they tend to go for you all the more because they think you're trying to hide a weakness. That's why I never said anything about the trouble with my hand.'

Sackey, whose 18 tries made him the highest scorer in top flight British rugby this season, finished the campaign with a Grand Final winner's medal to confirm his status as England's No 1 wing.

As Sackey prepares for the operation, one of his team-mates is 12,000 miles away hoping to turn Wasps' winning mentality to Ireland's advantage against the All Blacks in Wellington on Saturday.

Eoin Reddan will be playing behind a pack of Munster forwards with arguably more of a winning mentality than Wasps, whom they eliminated en route to reclaiming the European Cup.

Reddan said: 'We've got a team of players who win things and that's what they judge themselves on. That's the key to your development as a player.'