Shanklin out of Lions tour

But the Cardiff Blue is confident that after the arthroscopic surgery to clean out his knee he will be fit to play in time for the start of October.

"I injured my knee before I went on tour and did pretty well to last the four or five weeks I did," he said.

"My knee was swelling all the time and I thought it would be best to come home and get it done as soon as I could."

All the players who toured with the Lions will be given an extra month off to recover from their unsuccessful New Zealand adventures.

Shanklin expects that even with the knee surgery, he will return to domestic rugby duty at the same time as the others.

Given the catalogue of injuries suffered by the Lions, including a dislocated shoulder to skipper and fellow centre Brian O'Driscoll, Shanklin realises he could well have made the Lions Test side.

A day or two before that first Test I'd ruled myself out Tom Shanklin

"I like to think that if I was fit and in the form I had during the Six Nations, then I would have liked to have been in the 22 for the first Test," Shanklin added.

"Then Brian O'Driscoll got injured pretty early and there was a big opening at 13 and I was probably the obvious choice then to take over.

"But even a day or two before that first Test I'd ruled myself out - we kept it pretty quiet because everyone was focusing on the first Test and no one was really going to be bothered about me being injured!"