It is too early to go down that road of whether it is career-threatening or not.”Bruce will show as much patience as he can with Dugarry after his heroics in the second half of last season. He said: “I don’t think this club has ever seen before what he did for us last season and he single-handedly, for me, kept us in this division. He inspired us to win seven or eight of our last 11 games, which is why we are in the Premier League today, and I genuinely hope he can recover and reproduce some of that in the next few weeks.”Bruce will be looking for his side to put their dismal performance in the FA Cup exit by Sunderland a week ago behind them when they face the newly crowned Carling Cup-winners.”They will be on a high, and from our point of view everyone was absolutely gutted after the Sunderland game, from the top of the club to the supporters,” he said “We badly let ourselves down There was no excuse for it. When Christophe came off against Aston Villa he had that look of a dejected person.”The whole frustration has been there for everyone to see and it is up to us to try and help him and stay loyal to him. Bruce is hoping Dugarry can recover and regain the form of last season but he is also aware that the wear and tear on his knee may have taken too much of a toll.Bruce said: “It is a huge concern for us. Looking for a quick single, Giles lost his footing and collapsed in a heap, lying prostrate while the wicketkeeper took the bails off. Before reaching the dressing-room Giles had to walk past a balcony full of England players who were covering their laughter by hiding their faces behind newspapers.Collingwood fell two balls after completing his hundred and England declared soon afterwards to give themselves further bowling practice.

* Scotland picked up their second win in the ICC Six Nations Challenge yesterday, defeating the hosts, the United Arab Emirates, by 48 runs. The Scots ran up a total of 258 for 6 from their 50 overs before bowling out the UAE for 210. Alhough he struck Jamaica’s spinners for two straight sixes the majority of his runs came through well timed and well placed nudges.Before reaching his century Collingwood and Ashley Giles were involved in a comical run-out. But he was dropped for the third Test in Colombo and rumours surfaced that the on-tour selectors had overruled the wishes of those in England and played Hussain ahead of him.The first half of Collingwood’s innings was overshadowed by a brutal half-century from Andrew Flintoff but once the all-rounder perished Collingwood took charge. I was originally going to open but went down to three and that turned out champion “I know it is a very hard side to break into,” he added.

“There is a lot of experience in our top six and you need as much experience as you can in this part of the world. All I can do is put the other players under as much pressure as possible.”During his two Tests in Sri Lanka Collingwood showed plenty of fight and his occupation of the crease allowed England to draw both games. “But maybe this is the best way because it has given me little time to get nervous. I was told I was batting an hour and a half after Butch’s injury.