NEIL Lyman is part of Worcester Warriors' squad tonight.

Medical opinion says he shouldn't be. The Sixways management would rather he had his feet up while the player knows he's simply there to make up the numbers.

Lyman, the veteran Sixways prop, has been ordered to rest to cure the sternum injury suffered at the beginning of the season.

But he'll be at the Campo Comunale di Rovato tonight because Worcester simply don't have anyone else to step in for their European Shield quarter-final tie against Leonessa.

Tony Windo is undergoing an operation on his hand, Chris Hall is suffering symptoms of concussion while Ben Daly has only just come out of plaster.

The sight of another front rower Andre Van Niekerk hobbling around Sixways this week with a twisted ankle will also have done little to lift spirits in the camp.

Worcester's case, however, is just one in a long list when we are talking in European terms. The sight of Bath's flanker Michael Lipman filling in on the wing last weekend during their Heineken Cup clash with Leinster was another reminder of the suffocating ERC regulations which can turn Euro games into utter farce.

All clubs, who sign up for the ERC contract in September, have to register 34 players and that's that.

Once the ink is dry, there's no room for flexibility and no chance of change. And for the people involved, the situation isn't good enough.

Worcester's Giscard Pieters -- signed after the Euro registration was submitted -- has not been able to play any part in their Challenge Cup or Shield campaign.

Therefore, if Pieters lines up against Gloucester in the Premiership on January 29, it will be his first game since the New Year's Day victory over London Irish. Exactly, how does that benefit anybody?

If Worcester make it through to the Shield semis tonight, they can add another couple of players to their squad and replace a front row man. But it's too little, too late for the people at the sharp end.

"If a player is registered to play for your club, then he should be able to play in this competition, providing that he's not previously played for another club in the same tournament," said Worcester's director of rugby John Brain.

"At the end of the season, something has to be done. We (Worcester) are extremely low profile in this competition but we saw on Saturday with John Connolly (Bath's coach) saying that the rules are crazy.

"It's actually born out of a lack of understanding on the demands on modern day rugby squads and modern day players at the top level.

"It's just ridiculous. In the Powergen Cup, we don't have this problem.

"If you've played for another club in the same competition then you should be cup-tied but that's the only restriction there should be.

"You look at that Bath game. They were forced to play an openside flanker on the wing for the second half. I bet you they've got two or three wingers in their academy who they could have picked.

"We have to find a solution for next season because, at present, it's not good enough."