WORCESTERSHIRE batsman Reuben Spiring will miss the rest of the season after learning that he needs a seventh operation on his injured knee.

Spiring has been plagued by the injury for the last three years and a scan revealed the latest damage.

He is due to have his operation next week, and coach Bill Athey today paid tribute to his courage.

Athey said: "He is desperate to play cricket, otherwise he wouldn't have put himself through all this. He is showing incredible guts to carry on.

"He deserves for it to come right this time. He has got tremendous potential and we would love to have him fit all the time, and hopefully that is what we will have."

The County make two changes for their County Championship Division Two clash with Middlesex, which starts at Southgate tomorrow.

With Graeme Hick and Vikram Solanki on England one-day duty, opening batsman Phil Weston gets a rare opportunity and paceman Kabir Ali also returns after being ineligible for the replayed NatWest Trophy tie with Gloucestershire.

Weston has been restricted to just three first-class innings this season by a knee injury, and Athey said: "He has had very little cricket this season, so it is a great chance for him. He is just glad to be back."

Spinner Matt Rawnsley keeps his place, with Richard Illingworth still sidelined by a groin strain sustained in last week's National League clash with Leicestershire.

Athey is confident they will have shaken off their NatWest blues as they bid to get their title hopes back on track after two successive defeats.

He said: "It is another game and we have to get on with it.

"We have lost our last two games in this and we just have to turn it round and go back to doing what we were doing before, playing commonsense cricket."

Meanwhile, Aussie paceman Glenn McGrath has been named International Cricketer of the Year by the Federation of International Cricketers' Associations. He received his prize at a dinner in London earlier this week.

Worcestershire: Pollard, Wilson, Weston, Leatherdale, Driver, Rhodes, Lampitt, Catterall, Kabir Ali, Rawnsley, McGrath.