'Beckham bone' trouble strikes Strettle

The dreaded M-word appeared in connection with David Strettle for a third time yesterday, and the England wing must be heartily sick of hearing and reading about it. Harlequins, for whom he has been in eye-catching form in recent matches, confirmed he had suffered yet another injury to the fifth metatarsal in his left foot – the Beckham bone, as it is popularly known – and he will be lucky to play again before Christmas.

There was some positive news for Strettle after his latest unwanted meeting with an orthopaedic specialist, for another bout of surgery is not on the immediate agenda. Instead, he has been told to rest pending "further investigation work to help prevent the likelihood of any reoccurrence". He will, however, miss at least two, and possibly four, of his club's Heineken Cup fixtures, and will not be available to England should Martin Johnson, the new manager, find himself in need of extra wing resources during next month's international series at Twickenham.

He has had a rough time of it, the poor lad. He first found himself metatarsalised shortly before the 2007 World Cup and had to watch the tournament rather than play in it – a major disappointment, given his rapid recovery from a virus picked up a few weeks previously in South Africa that put him in the high dependency unit of a Johannesburg hospital. He returned to national colours for the start of this year's Six Nations Championship, ran rings round the Welsh at Twickenham for a few minutes and then broke down again.

Strettle was back by the end of the season and travelled with England to New Zealand, where his performance in the first Test in Auckland suggested a lack of match sharpness. To make matters worse, he found himself erroneously linked to a police investigation into alleged sexual misconduct by members of the tour party and had his name dragged backwards through the tabloids. By the time the dust had settled on that little episode, Johnson had demoted him to the second-string Saxons squad.

As a result of this latest setback, Quins must embark on their Heineken Cup campaign without two of their first-choice back division – a back division that looks very much like the best in English rugby when everyone is on the field simultaneously. Nick Evans, the All Black outside-half, is also struggling with injury and is not expected to be involved in the first tranche of European fixtures.

Gloucester and Saracens, two clubs with realistic ambitions of a top-four Premiership finish this season, will have to drag themselves through next month's rounds of the tournament without their Italian contingent as a result of Nick Mallett's selection for the November Tests. The Azzurri coach has named the Gloucester tight forwards Carlos Nieto and Marco Bortolami in a 30-man squad for the matches against Australia, Argentina and the Pacific Islands. The Saracens front-rowers Matias Aguero and Fabio Ongaro are also included.

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