Stones saw mixed blessing in Richard's injury

The Rolling Stones saw a positive side to Keith Richards' Fijian tree injury when the group were given a break from their gruelling world tour.

The Paint it Black rockers were in the middle of their Bigger Bang tour, when Richards knocked himself out after falling from a small tree in April.

The guitarist was subsequently flown to New Zealand for emergency surgery to drain fluid from his brain, which meant the group had to postpone a string of gigs by six weeks.

Richards said: "Trust me to break the momentum, but we'd been working pretty hard and I think everybody, including the crew, didn't really mind the extra few weeks off, as long as we can pick up the slack as we go along.

"I spoke to Mick (Jagger) and he said: 'Blessing in disguise.' I said: 'It was a bit painful. We won't try that again.'

"There's no big deal about it. I'm just sorry to have caused a lot of people a lot of inconvenience. But hey, you know... it's Keith Richards right?"