Jamie George set to miss England’s Six Nations opener in major blow for Steve Borthwick
Scrum half Alex Mitchell is also a doubt for the opening clash at the Aviva Stadium
England have suffered significant injury news ahead of the Six Nations with Jamie George ruled out of their opening fixtures against Ireland and France.
Hooker George, who has been replaced by Maro Itoje as captain, suffered a hamstring injury playing for Saracens in the Champions Cup and is among a group of five forced to withdraw from a pre-tournament training camp in Girona.
Scrum half Alex Mitchell has also pulled out, though will travel to Spain for rehabilitation with the hope of returning in time for the clash in Dublin. Fellow nine Jack van Poortvliet has also suffered an injury, along with forwards Alex Coles and Alex Dombrandt, and the trio are expected to join George in missing the first two games at least.
A quintet of replacements have been called up to the 36-man squad named last week including Ben Spencer, who started twice at scrum half in Mitchell’s stead during the Autumn Nations Series.
Also previously capped are Sale’s Raffi Quirke and Northampton hooker Curtis Langdon, while Gloucester lock Arthur Clark and rising Northampton star Henry Pollock earn their first senior England call-ups.
The injury issues will leave Steve Borthwick fretting ahead of a vital campaign.
While no longer captain, George remains a key part of Borthwick’s leadership group and senior figure within the squad. While both Luke Cowan-Dickie and Theo Dan have been in form, his absence represents a major blow.
“He’s a top-class player, a great leader and a fantastic influence around the other players. So we’re desperately disappointed for us as a squad and for him,” Borthwick told media at the Six Nations launch in Rome.
“I spoke to him yesterday [Monday] and I got a sense of determination from him down the phone. He’s a fast healer and he’s going to get back as soon as possible. I’ll be delighted to get him back fully fit. I told him that to pull a hamstring he’d clearly run too fast. I’m disappointed for him but hopefully he’ll be back soon.”
But the potential absence of MItchell is perhaps even more pivotal. England sorely missed their first-choice scrum half during an autumn where they won just once in four games, with the 27-year-old out with a neck injury.
There is hope that his leg knock will recover in time for the trip to Dublin on 1 February.
“We missed him in the autumn,” Borthwick said. “He has that running threat, but he also has speed of ball which is the quickest of all our nines. You can see the effect Alex has on the Northampton team as well as the England team.
“We are very optimistic that he will be available next week and he’s been playing really well. He is clearly crucial to the way we want to play. We know that, in this championship, the breakdown is going to be hard-fought, so getting that ball away is going to be very, very important to us.”
Spencer started the first two games of the November campaign before finding himself outside of the matchday 23 as Van Poortvliet was promoted to start. Harry Randall is the other nine in England’s squad and appeared off the bench in all four autumn fixtures.
A call-up for Pollock, meanwhile, comes after producing impressive form both domestically and in Europe for Northampton. The openside flanker was a star of the England side that won the U20 World Championship in South Africa last summer.
He, Clark and Langdon all featured in England’s A-team fixture against Australia during November.