Chris Ashton to miss England clash with Wales because of calf injury

England have suffered a major blow in the buildup to their Six Nations grand slam eliminator against Wales on Saturday after Chris Ashton was ruled out with a calf strain. Ashton suffered the injury during a training session at Twickenham on Friday and after further assessment over the weekend he was left out of the 33-man squad which convened at England’s Bagshot base on Sunday night.

England are confident Ashton will be fit to face Italy on 9 March but his absence against Wales is a setback for Eddie Jones, who is already without Mako Vunipola for the trip to Cardiff. Maro Itoje will continue his rehabilitation from a knee injury with England this week but he was not named as part of the squad and as a result is not in contention to face Wales. Dylan Hartley, meanwhile, will stay with Northampton, meaning he too will miss Saturday’s match.

With Ashton unavailable Jack Nowell now appears in line to start against Wales – he may well have done so anyway considering he was preferred to Ashton against Ireland – but Joe Cokanasiga is another option after he made a try-scoring return to action for Bath on Saturday following 10 weeks out with a knee injury. The Gloucester wing Ollie Thorley is also part of the squad but he is still awaiting a Test debut.

For Ashton it is more bad luck after a calf injury cut short his autumn campaign. He has won five caps since his return from France to Sale Sharks last summer, scoring one try against New Zealand, but the back three is arguably the most hotly contested area of Jones’s squad with Anthony Watson still to return from a long-term achilles injury to press his World Cup claims. Ashton was handed a first Six Nations start for six years in the 44-8 victory over France last Sunday on what Jones described as a “gut feeling” before being replaced by Nowell after 51 minutes.

Cokanasiga, meanwhile, believes his injury was the best thing that could have happened after scoring two tries in his first two England matches against Japan and Australia in November. The 21-year-old suffered knee ligament damage on his return for Bath in early December and had not played since until his club’s 30-13 win over Newcastle on Saturday.