Healey: Make me No.10 or I quit

Austin Healey, hero of Leicester's European Cup triumph, has told the Treble winners that he will quit if they do not make him first-choice fly half next season.

Healey turns out at scrum half for Leicester and on the wing for England but he said yesterday: 'I have made no secret that fly half is where I want to play for the Tigers and I think I have proved enough times that I can do it.

'If Leicester won't play me at No.10 then I will find a club that will.'

Healey switched from scrum half to replace Andy Goode at stand off five minutes from the end of Saturday's European Cup Final with Stade Francais.

A knee problem had curtailed his training and he had been taking painkillers all week, but he still conjured up the stunning break that set up the injury-time try for Leon Lloyd which clinched a 34-30 victory and added the European crown to Leicester's Premier-ship and play-off titles.

The 27-year- old Healey, a chirpy Merseysider known as Mr Gobby to his team-mates, is in the Lions squad to tour Australia next month. However, with Jonny Wilkinson, Neil Jenkins and Ronan O'Gara also in the party, he is unlikely to get a look-in at fly half except as a substitute.

He and his wife Louise are starting a family soon and there have been suggestions that he might return to the north, where he began his top-flight career with Sale. He said: 'It is up to Dean Richards, our director of rugby, to decide where I will play. My agent is in negotiations with him to see what we can sort out.'

Healey's Leicester teammate, prop Ricky Nebbett, may miss the Canadian leg of England's North American tour which begins next Monday because he has a conviction for causing grievous bodily harm.

Nebbett, 23, served two months of a nine-month sentence after being found guilty in September 1999 of attacking a 42-year-old librarian.

Canadian immigration guidelines state: 'Visitors to Canada must satisfy an immigration officer that they do not have a criminal record.'

An RFU spokesman said: 'All we can say is that we are talking with the authorities to get Ricky entry into Canada.'

England play two Tests in Canada and one in the United States, where Nebbett's entry should not be a problem.