The 31-year-old one-day captain had a third and final cortisone injection in a torn muscle in his right shoulder last Friday.

Having undergone jabs before the Test series in Sri Lanka and the tour of New Zealand, day-to-day rehabilitation is now the only way to avoid an operation.

And Collingwood, who set out on his sequence of caps when deputising for Andrew Strauss in Lahore in December 2005, has revealed the pride that motivates him to continue adding to his impressive run.

"to play 30 games is a massive achievement and hopefully now I'm a better player than I have ever been," he said.

"I still scrap around for runs and I will always be that kind of player.

"The last resort is to go down the route of saying that the shoulder is too sore to carry on."

an operation would mean that Collingwood would be sidelined for between three and six months, meaning he would miss a sizeable chunk of England's commitments this year.

The problem flared up again for Collingwood – whose medium pace supplements the four-man attack – in early-season outings with Durham.

"I guess it's the stress you put the shoulder under and we have played a fair bit of cricket since the time I did it in Sri Lanka," he said.

"This is the last injection I can have in this particular area, so hopefully I can keep it strong and manage it from now on."

YORKSHIREMAN Ryan Sidebottom is vowing to continue his tried and tested methods for England after his efforts were rewarded with the Vodafone Player of the Year award.

Nottinghamshire's 30-year-old left-arm seamer received the award after claiming a stunning haul of 53 wickets at 25.24 in 12 Tests since establishing himself in the England Test line-up.

But Sidebottom insists that he will not change the methods that have brought him his success.

"I'm not going to go out there and try any harder, I'm not going to change the way I bowl," he said.