George Ford faces missing out on England’s entire autumn campaign due to the injury he sustained on Sale duty last weekend.
Sale are still waiting on results of a scan to discover the full extent of the fly-half’s layoff, but there are fears that Ford could be out of action for somewhere between six and eight weeks with a torn quad muscle. With England beginning the Autumn Nations Series against the All Blacks on 2 November, it would be a blow for the 31-year-old, who missed the summer tour of Japan and New Zealand to have surgery on a troublesome achilles tendon, having started each of England’s five matches during the Six Nations.
With Ford at the helm, England showed significant progress through the tournament, particularly in the victory over Ireland and narrow defeat by France and, though Marcus Smith caught the eye on tour, the Sale No 10’s experience was missed. Ford has 96 caps and would have hoped to reach his England century this autumn.
Speaking on Tuesday, Sale’s director of rugby, Alex Sanderson, said: “I don’t think he could have played on. He walked off and he hobbled around a bit. The initial report from the scan is that it’s a tear, so it was definitely the right decision to bring him off at the time. We haven’t got anything definite or concrete to tell you now … and we don’t know the length of time that will take to rehab at this point.”
Compounding matters for the England coach Steve Borthwick, who will oversee a mini-training camp at Twickenham next week, his first-choice scrum-half Alex Mitchell has not featured yet this season for Northampton owing to a neck injury and, with the Saints unable to put a timeframe on his return, he must likewise be considered a doubt for the autumn. With Danny Care and Ben Youngs both now retired from international rugby, Borthwick is lacking experience at scrum-half with Ben Spencer, Harry Randall and Jack van Poortvliet the next cabs off the rank.
Maro Itoje sustained a knee injury in Saracens’ victory over Sale last weekend, after Ford had already been withdrawn, but while he will miss Saracens’ match against Exeter on Sunday, his director of rugby, Mark McCall, has played down fears that the second row will not be fit for England’s autumn campaign.
“There’s nothing structural at all, so it’s as minor as it gets really. A little bit of bruising and he’s just settling that down,” said McCall. “Just a bang and a bit of swelling, which will come down. We expect to have him available for the week after.”
Joe Marler and Henry Slade are also nursing foot and shoulder injuries respectively and have not featured since England’s summer tour of New Zealand. Alex Dombrandt is struggling with a hand injury while Tom Curry will miss Sale’s match against Gloucester on Friday owing to the concussion he sustained on the opening weekend of the season.
In a more positive development for Borthwick, Bath have revealed that Sam Underhill has returned to full fitness following ankle surgery. The openside flanker, who has started in each of England’s last nine Tests, has not appeared for Bath this season but has been declared available for Saturday’s west country derby with Bristol.
England host New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Japan in November with Borthwick due to name his squad for the autumn series on 16 October.
Meanwhile, the Scotland centre Cameron Redpath is also available for Bath this weekend after undergoing shoulder surgery in the summer.
