Leicester Tiger coach Richard Cockerill has confirmed that Tom Croft has made a full recovery from a neck injury.

The 27-year-old suffered the problem towards the end of last season and only returned to playing action in January of this year.

Having put in a positive performance against Saracens at the weekend, Cockerill insisted that the flanker is now back to his best.

"Tom is now ready to play consecutive weeks for us. He has metal work in his neck to hold everything together while it heals," the boss told the Leicester Mercury.

"What you don't want is the screws to be working loose and that's why he was only playing every other week, to control the amount of impact and vibration going through him. He's been doing that for two months and we have had no adverse reaction to that. He has looked more and more comfortable as he has played every week.

"He was scanned on Monday and his X-ray has been sent to the specialist, who is happy that it has healed enough. It will take months for it to be completely healed so we will still manage him, but Tom was looking good at the weekend and I am pleased for him, because it was a serious injury."

Despite his recovery, it has been reported that Croft will not join up with the England squad for the remainder of the Six Nations and will instead remain with Leicester.