England have been dealt a blow with the news that Sam Underhill, Zach Mercer and Jack Nowell will miss the next round of the NatWest 6 Nations matches due to injury.
Eddie Jones’ side will travel to Paris in Round Four to take on France as they look to bounce back from their loss to Scotland last time out.
But they will be without winger Nowell, who has suffered an ankle injury and will miss the rest of the campaign, as well as Bath back-row duo Underhill and Mercer who have also returned to their clubs.
There is also some concern of captain Dylan Hartley, who has suffered muscle tightness, with Exeter Chiefs hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie called up as cover.
Forwards coach Steve Borthwick said: “We’ve got a couple of knocks and players have returned to their clubs. Jack Nowell has rolled his ankle that he injured previously earlier on this season and returned to the club this morning for further investigation.
“In addition to that Sam Underhill has injured his big toe so he won’t be in contention for selection this week as that has flared up, so Sam has returned to his club.
“Zach Mercer took a knock in the Bath against Harlequins game and has been unable to train since he arrived in camp so he returned to his club this morning.
“In addition to that, we’ve got a couple of guys who have some muscle tightness so Dylan Hartley in the leg and Harry Williams in his neck. So what that has meant is Luke Cowan-Dickie was called up yesterday and trained with the squad fully this morning and Kyle Sinckler is in the squad as he was last week in Oxford.
“Both Dylan and Harry will be monitored on a daily basis and see how that develops.
“It’s really disappointing for (Sam and Jack). It’s been great having both of those players a part of our squad, they’re both excellent players and we obviously want them to recover from their injuries as quickly as possible but it’s unlikely Jack will be fit for the rest of this tournament but hopefully Sam will calm down quickly.
“Whenever there are injuries there are opportunities as we’ve seen consistently.”
