England fly-half Owen Farrell could be a doubt for the 6 Nations opener against Wales in Cardiff after suffering a knee injury against Clermont Auvergne.
The Saracens ace lasted just 18 minutes of the Men in Black’s 18-6 European Champions Cup defeat at the Stade Marcel-Michelin on Sunday.
The 23-year-old twisted his left knee and director of rugby Mark McCall expects to know more about the problem by the middle of this week.
McCall told the Daily Telegraph: “It’s a new injury and we don’t know the extent of it just yet.
“It’s complicated with knee injuries, sometimes you can do that [walk off] and it’s more serious, but we’ll get him looked after and we’ll know in the next few days.”
Farrell was recently named in Stuart Lancaster’s 34-man training squad for the trip to the Millennium Stadium on February 6 alongside fellow fly-halves George Ford, Stephen Myler and Danny Cipriani.
It is a big year for English rugby with the 6 Nations part of the build-up to the autumn’s World Cup on home soil and so every player will want to stay as fit as possible.
However, injuries are also a reality of top-level rugby union and the likelihood is that Lancaster will have to do without a few household names later in the year.
England last hosted World Cup games back in 1991 although officially Wales was the principal host nation, with matches also held in Scotland, Ireland and France.
The Red Rose are 2.60 to win this year’s 6 Nations and 4.50 to lift the World Cup for a second time on October 31 at Twickenham.
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