Shaun Perry made his first appearance in more than five months for Worcester this week in a small acorn of a game he hopes could grow into a new contract with Warriors.

The former England scrum-half was part of the development side that played the Army at Sixways, his first game back after recovering from a knee injury.

The 34-year-old’s current deal expires at the end of the current campaign which leaves him with little more than a couple of months to convince Richard Hill he is worth retaining.

As things stand only two things are certain, Perry’s desire to remain at Worcester – and the fact that desire could be frustrated by a lack of talks so far. All of which means Perry knows he is fighting a rearguard action. “I need to get a couple of games under my belt because I need to play for a contract,” he said.

“Hopefully my knee will hold out, it’s been holding out in training.

“I want to play rugby, I want to play rugby for Worcester and stay at Worcester, it’s my local club, it’s the area I was born in and, for me, that’s what it’s about.

“There are no talks as of yet and as a player you sort of know what the score is. There’s nothing to worry about, that’s the occupation we are in and it happens. You sort of know if you are not getting spoken to by the middle or end of Feb then you do need to look elsewhere.

“Hopefully they will come with a contract, I think they are just waiting to see if I am fit and if I can play.”

Dudley Kingswinford-product Perry, who joined Worcester from Brive in 2011, has endured a frustrating time at Warriors having injured his knee a few games into his first season – an injury that wasn’t as bad as first feared.

He was in and out of the side last term but started this as Hill’s first choice – until he broke down again midway through the match with Northampton on September 22. ”You are a long time retired and as long as my knee is good and shows signs that it recovers well after a game then I will carry on playing.”