Light Blues captain Matt Guinness-King is hoping a specialist can get to the bottom of the nagging neck injury that is threatening his chances of leading his side into the 2011 Varsity Match.

The Canadian international joined the rest of the Cambridge squad on the tour to Dublin, but was unable to play in either the Blues or LX club fixtures because of continuing problems with his injury.

"The injury is being stubborn and is testing my patience. I'm heading for a private consultation this week and I'm hoping that will give me a cleared indication of the problem and how to get it cleared up," said Guinness-King.

"It is hugely frustrating and I really wanted to play a part in one of the games in Dublin. But I don't want to further aggravate the problem because the Varsity Match isn't too far away.

"As it was, two yellow cards cost us dearly in Dublin and we slipped to a 17-6 defeat in a game in which we could easily have won. Trinity hit us with one try when we were down to 13 men and then clinched the game with a second before the end.

"We have lost the second halves of out last two matches and I'm not sure we have the right guys in place at the moment who can guts it out in the final quarter. We are still trying to find our true character - we must learn how to dig deeper than ever before in games as the Varsity Match approaches.

"Scott Annett and Jason Kururangi are doing a great job up front and Dave Allen is turning into a valuable new recruit. There is a lot of work to be done, and there is still more than enough time to get things right, and at least we now have a lot of competition for places."

Tom O'Toole, with a penalty, and Kristian Cook, with a drop goal, scored the Blues' points in Dublin. Cambridge's next game is against Northampton Saints at Grange Road on Monday, 3 October (kick-off 7.15pm).