Billy Vunipola, who has started only three of England’s past 19 Tests, will miss the four-match series at Twickenham next month after breaking his left arm at Glasgow on Sunday.
The Saracens No 8 will have surgery on Tuesday and is expected to be out of action for 12 weeks. Last January he fractured his right arm in another European Champions Cup encounter, at Ospreys, and did not play again for another 106 days, breaking it again during the June tour to South Africa.
Freddie Burns’ nightmare finish hands Toulouse victory over Bath
If the same timescale applies this time the 25-year-old, who last started an England victory in 2016, will return at the end of January, just before the beginning of the Six Nations and probably too late for the opening two rounds. His absence leaves the England head coach, Eddie Jones, who announces his squad on Thursday, with a problem at the base of the scrum.
Vunipola’s back-up, Nathan Hughes, has a date with a disciplinary committee on Wednesday having been cited for throwing a punch during Wasps’ defeat against Gloucester this month. His original hearing last week was suspended after he posted a comment on Twitter during it that read “What a joke”.
He was looking at a ban of up to six weeks for the offence if found guilty but faces a longer one if a charge of bringing the game into disrepute is added. If Hughes is ruled out, Jones will be unable to call on Exeter’s Sam Simmonds, who started three of England’s Six Nations games last season, because he has a long-term injury.
That narrows down the specialist options at No 8 to Gloucester’s Ben Morgan, who has not played for England since the last World Cup, and Zach Mercer of Bath. “I always hope for a recall,” the 31-cap Morgan said after winning the man-of-the-match award for Gloucester against Castres on Sunday, when Jones was among the spectators.
Jones also faces a problem at loose-head. Mako Vunipola lasted only 21 minutes at Glasgow before leaving the field with a calf injury. Saracens said in a statement on Monday that he would be monitored and that along with their England second-row Nick Isiekwe, who sustained an ankle sprain at Scotstoun Stadium, was “set for a spell on the sidelines”.
Rugby union: talking points from the European Champions Cup
Mako Vunipola left the ground on crutches, with his left foot in a protective boot. Jones is already missing four loosehead props: Joe Marler has retired from international rugby while Ellis Genge, Matt Mullan and Beno Obano are all injured.
That leaves Exeter’s Ben Moon, who was called into the squad for the recent training camp in Bristol after Marler pulled out, and his clubmate Alec Hepburn, a replacement for the first two games of the Six Nations this year who was also on the bench for the final Test in South Africa in the summer.
England’s first match is against South Africa on 3 November. Jones is already without the Bath backs Anthony Watson and Jonathan Joseph, along with the Wasps second-row Joe Launchbury. Three other Saracens players who were injured against Glasgow – the forwards Maro Itoje and Jamie George, who both broke their noses, and the fly-half Owen Farrell, who picked up a knee problem – are expected to be fit for England’s training camp in Portugal.
Scotland will be without their experienced second-row Richie Gray next month and for most of the Six Nations. He needs a back operation and will be out for up to four months.