Healey faces another spell of treatment

England's Austin Healey is facing a fresh battle to return to full fitness in time for this autumn's Rugby World Cup.

The versatile Leicester star suffered ligament damage in Sunday's Heineken Cup quarter-final defeat by Munster and will miss the rest of the season.

Healey, who had only just returned from an Achilles injury, was sidelined after a crunching tackle by Munster's Rob Henderson.

Leicester director of rugby Dean Richards revealed the 29-year-old is back to square one.

"I think it's fair to say Austin's priority now is to try to get himself ready for the World Cup," Richards told BBC Radio Leicester.

"Hopefully he'll be ready for our pre-season but that depends on what happens.

"He did have some cartilage damage which is being treated and also they found some ligament problems, but that's not thought to be too serious at this time."