Marcus Smith is a major doubt for England’s opening Six Nations match against Italy after limping out of Monday’s training session.
Smith was spotted on crutches in England’s training camp in Girona before having a leg scan. His injury means Steve Borthwick’s side may be left with just two fly-halves in George Ford and the uncapped Fin Smith.
England already have a long list of injuries as several players including Manu Tuilagi, Ollie Lawrence, Anthony Watson, Luke Cowan-Dickie, George Martin and Nick Isiekwe are out.
“I have heard nothing on what he has done,” said England attack coach Richard Wigglesworth.
“Hopefully very precautionary, the medical staff here are generally like that. I have not been updated on that, since I have been back but if he is not [fit] it would definitely be a blow for us.
“It wasn’t a big incident, that’s why I was hoping it was nothing much. He was just jogging, it was never extensive but he pulled up and happened to be right next to a physio when he did it by the sideline, so they just walked off after that. I saw him walk off but when you mentioned crutches, I wasn’t aware of that.”
Marcus Smith was one of England’s best players at the 2023 Rugby World Cup
Borthwick: Match-hardened England ready for Six Nations battle
Borthwick’s 36-player squad have also comfortably racked up the highest number of minutes played since the World Cup due to their Premiership and European commitments.
While England will enter the Six Nations depleted by a greater workload – they have accumulated over two hours of game time more per player than next highest France – Borthwick believes they have benefited from the competitiveness of English clubs.
Six Premiership teams have reached the knockout phase of the Investec Champions Cup while the domestic league itself is more compelling that ever following its reduction in teams.
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Borthwick outlines why he’s named George as his new England captain and explains some of the inclusions in the wider 36-man Six Nations squad
“The players are match-hardened, so that’s a great benefit. Generally I will try to look at the positive side and I have a group of players that are match-hardened. They are ready to go,” Borthwick said.
“The other thing is the nature of the Premiership. All of the games are counting so the leverage of all these games is huge.
“And there have been teams fighting in Europe to get qualification, fighting to find a way to win which, again, is a real positive.
“Everything we’re getting is saying all the clubs are running more than they were 12 months ago, so that’s a real positive.”