Youngs to miss Heineken Cup start

"Ben has had surgery and he is having holiday time at the minute, which is important," Cockerill told the Leicester Mercury. "He will miss the first rounds of the Heineken Cup which is not ideal because you want your best players playing in the biggest games. When he is fit, he will be back on the field. It is typical that he will get fit and then we will lose him to the autumn internationals."

The England scrum half injured his shoulder playing for England in the second Test on tour in South Africa last month.
Twenty-two-year-old Youngs was expected to miss around two months of action for Leicester Tigers but that now looks like being four months,

The Heineken Cup will kick off on the weekend starting 12 October and Leicester Tigers are in a mouthwatering Pool 2 with four-time champions, Toulouse, current RaboDirect Pro12 champions, Ospreys, and Benetton Treviso.

Cockerill has also revealed that a number of other players who have been on the long term injury list are nearing their returns. "Tom Croft (neck) should be ready at the end of September and Jordan Crane should be okay," he said. "He (Crane) has been training for a while now but we have to be careful because he had a serious injury which has seen him out of the game for a long while.

"Louis Deacon (torn hamstring) is doing well, too. We just have to make sure everything is right. Matthew Tait (groin) will be the end of September but he is also doing very well. Hopefully, apart from Youngs, by the end of September, we will have a full squad. But I am sure I have said that before!"