Steve Borthwick suffers yet another blow as Anthony Watson is ruled out of the World Cup through injury, with Elliot Daly also joining England’s mounting injury list
- Owen Farrell and Billy Vunipola will miss the start of the World Cup with bans
- Now, Steve Borthwick is without winger Anthony Watson, who has a calf injury
- Borthwick insists the disciplinary process behind Farrell’s ban is ‘bewildering’
England’s World Cup preparations suffered yet another blow on Thursday as winger Anthony Watson was ruled out of the tournament.
Following bans for Owen Farrell and Billy Vunipola, Steve Borthwick has lost another of his most experienced players. Watson suffered a calf injury during Saturday’s defeat by Ireland and Jonny May has been drafted in to start against Fiji on Saturday, although he has not yet been confirmed as part of the 33-man squad.
‘Anthony has worked tremendously hard and helped his team enormously so we’re all really disappointed for him,’ Borthwick said on Thursday.
‘He is an important member of this squad and one that has enormous respect from everybody. He has had setbacks before and always worked through them and I know he’ll be back on the field as soon as possible.’
England’s injury list is mounting, with centre Elliot Daly, winger Henry Arundell, flanker Tom Curry and second-row George Martin among the short-term absentees.
England head coach Steve Borthwick (pictured) was dealt yet another blow on Thursday as experienced winger Anthony Watson was ruled out of the World Cup with a calf injury
Watson suffered his injury during England’s 29-10 defeat against Ireland in Dublin last week
England captain Owen Farrell will also miss the start of the World Cup because of a suspension
With the injuries adding to the suspensions, Borthwick did not attempt to hide his frustrations at Farrell’s drawn-out disciplinary process which has seen him banned, un-banned and banned again for a high tackle against Wales.
‘Whether you’re a supporter of England or another country, everybody could see that something like this should not have gone on for that period of time,’ said Borthwick. ‘That’s one of the aspects we’ll be considering feeding back. We have a World Cup to focus on but we’ll be following through certain channels now and then we’ll be able to speak publicly once we’re through this period.
‘The first process was conducted by one of the more senior and experienced panels that handles these matters and they’ve come to a considered decision. Then another panel comes in and says something different. The whole process is quite bewildering.
‘I will talk about it more in the future but right now it’s bewildering, it’s been frustrating and there’s no doubt it’s been a distraction. But I’ll also say we’ve got to focus on going forward. That’s what we’re doing now.’
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