AFTER the reported lack of beds at Worcester's new hospital you might be forgiven for thinking Sixways had started admitting patients.

With Ben Hinshelwood rattling around on crutches with his plastered leg, David Officer's boot and Mark Gabey's splint, Worcester could quite happily pass as a scene from Casualty after recent events.

And after James Ogilvie-Bull's a/c injury this week the diagnosis gets no better for beleaguered coaches John Brain and Andy Keast. To their credit, though, they are still working their way through the waiting list with some impressive results.

"I've never known anything like it," said Keast. "I've known bad periods where I've had to deal with injuries but nothing like this because this has been all season. In the last month, we've had one every week and, coming into the second half of the season, we are getting walloped by them."

It's an impressive list. One which would make a fairly good football team you would think. James Brown was the first back in August when he did his back. Surgery required and two months out. Next up was Christian Evans who dislocated his collarbone and spent two months on the sidelines before David Officer pulled up in training. What was first thought as merely an ankle injury was then diagnosed as an Achilles problem. Weeks in plaster have followed and the Scottish A international centre has not been seen on a pitch since November.

Since then, Worcester have lost hooker Chris Pearson with a broken wrist which needed an operation. He is still struggling but could be back next month. After Pearson came a broken nose for flanker Gavin Pfister, broken fingers for full back Duncan Roke and Werner Swanepoel.

After that tale of woe you would expect that to be the end of it. You've surely used up all your bad luck . . . don't you believe it! Winger Craig Hudson was ruled out through illness before Richard Bates dislocated his good shoulder in Worcester's Powergen Cup tie at Leicester just before Christmas.

New Year, though, didn't just bring the same old story -- it brought a rather more painful sequel.

Gabey broke his arm against Coventry in an innocuous incident and, a week later, disaster struck as Hinshelwood was ruled out until April with a broken leg. To top it all off this week, Ogilvie-Bull was the latest to make the journey from Sixways to hospital after a United match on Monday. He will now be out of action for around six weeks to further limit Keast and Co's options at centre.

"It's enormously frustrating," added Keast. "Coaching the back line at present is hard. All the continuity comes into question and you have to start experimenting. When you are experimenting at this time of year, there's something wrong. You should know exactly where you are.

"But we are brave enough to experiment. Even though there is pressure to win matches and pick up bonus points, we have to be thinking about different scenarios because of the injuries. We will hopefully have a look at Tim Walsh at outside centre against Manchester. You have to take a gamble and we're happy to do that because we believe in the players.

"If we did go on to win the title after all these problems, though, it would be all the sweeter because it's been a tough season."