By Pranav Soneji

Sackey is among the Wasps hopefuls vying for Lions selection

Paul Sackey believes Wasps director of rugby Ian McGeechan will show no favouritism to his club players when he takes charge of the 2009 Lions tour.

Sackey is one of a number of Test stars at Wasps harbouring strong hopes of selection for the tour to South Africa.

"Everyone says it's a blessing (for Wasps players) that he's the coach, but it's not," Sackey told BBC Sport.

"If he picks some of the Wasps boys, it's like he is being biased. But he will pick players only on performance."

McGeechan was appointed as Lions head coach for the fourth time in May, having masterminded their last series win over the Springboks back in 1997.

The Wasps director of rugby has been tipped to take Wasps head coach Shaun Edwards, already defence coach for Wales, to South Africa.

But Sackey, one of nine Wasps players named in England manager Martin Johnson's 32-man elite squad, does not expect McGeechan to fall into the trap of selecting on the basis of familiarity.

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"It's nice that he is there - he's my coach," he said at England's O2 Scrum on the Beach event at Trafalgar Square.

"But on the flip side, people can get on his back about picking players who he knows a lot about.

"It's a hard one for him too, so it can work both ways."

Wasps' injured fly-half Danny Cipriani is in the Saxons squad, along with a further four club-mates, and Ireland scrum-half Eoin Reddan will also be in contention.

A knee injury ruled Sackey out of England's summer tour to New Zealand, but he said he is not thinking about a return for the autumn internationals until he is fully fit and playing well for Wasps.

"My target was the third game of the season and I've played a friendly (a 20-17 defeat by Llanelli Scarlets), so I'll take it from there," said Sackey, who has scored eight tries in his last 15 appearances for England.

"My next target is to get fit and play for Wasps.

"When I'm doing that and playing well and I get picked for the England team, then my next job is to think about what I'm going to do with England."