"I am recovering and seeing a specialist tomorrow (Friday) to continue to keep getting the information in," Wilkinson told Britain’s Press Association on Thursday.

"I am happy with the recovery and the way it is going, it is just frustrating because there was an initial very good period of recovery and then it has just slowed down and not enough to get me back out there which is tough.

"But it is the right decision to make and good to get it out there because I have been training very hard for each game during the week and then having to deal with the disappointment in quite an intense way when coming up to the weekend that I was not going to make it.

"Now at least I have got that period of time to work and work positively. It is moving on, but it is the frustration which is probably affecting me more than the injury is."

But despite his recent lack of game time, the 24-year-old Wilkinson, who has not played a full 80 minutes - or was that 100? - since the RWC Final on November 22, 2003, claims that he is as fit as ever.

"I am probably fitter than I have ever been in terms of the work I have been doing up at Newcastle with Steve Black," he told PA.

"I am really pleased with the way it has been going, especially with the kicking, but you cannot substitute match experience."

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