England’s woes were compounded on Monday night with confirmation that Anthony Watson has sustained a torn achilles and faces around six months out of action.
Eddie Jones revealed after the defeat by Ireland on Saturday that he was prepared to rest some of his British & Irish Lions contingent against South Africa in the summer despite three consecutive defeats but Watson’s enforced absence is still a considerable blow, depriving England of one of their most potent attacking weapons.
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Bath confirmed on Monday that Watson has been ruled out for the rest of the season and it is understood that, with surgery and a lengthy period of rehabilitation, the 24-year-old will face a race against time to be fit for the start of the 2018-19 campaign.
“Anthony has been in superb form this year and we’re obviously really disappointed to have lost him at a critical part of the season,” said Bath’s director of rugby, Todd Blackadder.
Watson, who has scored 15 tries in 36 Test appearances, had only just displaced Mike Brown as England’s first-choice full-back but left the field on Saturday on an electric cart after sustaining the injury towards the end of the first half. England are already set to be without Courtney Lawes and Nathan Hughes for the three-Test series against South Africa after both underwent knee surgery last week.