Wilko: My shock at recall

Jonny Wilkinson has spoken of his surprise at being handed an early England recall.

Jonny Wilkinson has spoken of his shock at being handed an early England recall by new head coach Brian Ashton.

Although selected for England's squad, the World Cup winning fly-half was not even sure he would gain a place on the bench for their Six Nations opener against Scotland on Saturday.

Wilkinson had previously assumed that both Newcastle team-mate Toby Flood and debutant Shane Geraghty would be uppermost in Ashton's thoughts ahead of his first match in charge.

But, having proved his fitness, it is instead the 27-year-old who will be donning the number 10 jersey and taking the field at Twickenham alongside two fellow returning World Cup veterans, Jason Robinson and Mike Tindall.

"I was as surprised as anyone to be given the chance," Wilkinson wrote in The Times.

"When Brian told me that he was picking me, he just said that, knowing I was fit, he wanted me to add to the squad and the squad environment and that the best way of doing all that was to play me.

"I was sure that Toby and Shane Geraghty would be the two picked to play this coming weekend, probably with Toby playing, and I told Toby that myself."

Wilkinson has not played for his country in over three years after suffering a string of injuries - the latest setback coming in November when he lacerated a kidney.

"I guess that I am at the end of a long journey," he continued. "It's obviously not one I'd ever have wanted to go down; getting through it was all about my desire.

"But I now feel that it's the real journey that I'm at the start of, the one that I've been longing for for so long.

"I guess you could say that I've been sidetracked for a while, but I'm back on the right path and I want to see how far it can take me."