Nick Robinson's Blog by Nick_Robinson

This week has been a very low key training week for me as I had to have a few injections into my back and then had to rest up for a few days once I'd had them. I have picked up a few very slight calf strains and the medical team at the club think that a disc bulge in my back is causing these slight strains. I had an epidural earlier in the season and that worked well, helping me play about 10 games in a row injury free, so the hope is this will have the same effect. It tends to be the forwards who have the injections in the back and not something I'm used to. But I had hamstring and calf problems all of last season and now twice this season and it is very frustrating to keep on picking up niggles.

Injections are not great, especially long term, but they are more and more a part of professional sport. I did mention to the consultant that I would like to be able to swing a golf club once my rugby career is over though!! The club want you to be fit and you want to be fit to play, end of! We as players put our trust in the medical team to do what they think is best and trust their judgement as specialists. That's all we can do. If the injections work then hopefully I will be back training by the end of this week, that's how effective they are!

The horse that I have a share in ran again last week, this time at Newbury. It was the first time all four of the owners were able to watch him run and 'The Dude' didn't disappoint, putting in a great run and finishing 3rd in a photo finish. This race was a step up in class from his last run, so to finish 3rd was brilliant!! We even made the Racing Post with an action shot of me and two of the other owners as the race is nearing its conclusion. We are all pulling very different faces but equally amusing, and one of us seems to have forgotten to put his teeth in! It does seem that there are more positive things to write about the horse than the rugby!! It's a long season though so maybe his good performances will rub off on me!

This weekend was the final weekend of qualification for the Heineken European Cup and with Leinster and Munster the only sides with guaranteed qualification, there were still 6 spots up for grabs. Each group played at the same time so as not to give any side an unfair advantage of knowing what they needed to do, which made it a very exciting weekend. One thing that will be interesting is how many English, Celtic and French sides make up the 8 and the debate over which league is the strongest will come up again. It's something I will express my view on next week! See you then!