Ollie Chessum and Tommy Freeman are serious injury doubts for England’s game with New Zealand at Twickenham on Saturday. The two British & Irish Lions players sat out training on Monday and their participation against the All Blacks is in jeopardy.
Chessum is struggling with a foot injury and was seen on crutches at England’s training base in Bagshot. He was replaced after 70 minutes of the 38-18 win against Fiji on Saturday and in the likely event he is ruled out Maro Itoje’s expected second‑row partner would be Alex Coles.
Freeman was also replaced in the later stages of the victory and it is understood he is nursing a hamstring injury. The 24-year-old has become an integral part of England’s back-line, starting at outside-centre against Australia before moving back to the right wing against Fiji.
He has started all England matches he has been available for since the start of 2024 and his absence would be a considerable blow.
Elliot Daly has returned to full training, but has not played since he fractured an arm when with the Lions in June and it would be a huge call to throw him straight back into action against New Zealand. Freddie Steward (hand) and Tom Roebuck (ankle) missed out against Fiji, but have returned to training. If they are not available, England would be facing a back-three crisis.
Steward started against Australia and would appear to be in competition with Daly for the No 15 jersey if Steve Borthwick does not keep Marcus Smith at full-back. If Roebuck is fit he would be the expected replacement for Freeman.
Borthwick did reveal that Freeman was back under consideration to start in the No 13 jersey against New Zealand, but Ollie Lawrence would probably remain at outside-centre if the Northampton Saint is unavailable.
Chessum has endured a series of serious injuries on international duty. He missed all of the autumn campaign last year after a knee injury at England’s preparation camp in Girona and nearly missed out on the 2023 World Cup because of an ankle injury in the Six Nations that year.
Borthwick is not blessed with a wealth of second-row options and if Itoje and Coles are named to start on Saturday Chandler Cunningham-South would be pressed into providing cover. He started at No 8 against Fiji, but Borthwick is expected to reshuffle his back row with Sam Underhill coming back in the fold.
The 29-year-old destructive tackler sat out the victory against Fiji but has started 13 of England’s matches since the 2023 World Cup and is rarely omitted if fit. It would be a surprise if Tom Curry, who has come off the bench in both England’s matches this autumn, did not return to the starting lineup.
England entertain the All Blacks on the back of nine consecutive Test victories, but have lost their past three encounters against them, all by narrow margins, and have not beaten New Zealand at Twickenham since Manu Tuilagi ran riot in 2012.
Underhill is one of the few members of the squad to have tasted victory against the All Blacks. He and Curry starred as Eddie Jones’s “Kamikaze Kids” in the 2019 World Cup semi-final victory against New Zealand.
“As a team they are incredibly good decision-makers and they take advantage of teams that are slow to react to things,” said Underhill, who had a memorable late try disallowed against New Zealand in a narrow 2018 defeat.
“You have almost got to see the game as quickly as you can, then the physical intensity; they are an athletic team, a dynamic team that make the most of space and speed of ball to give their athletic guys the ability to show what they can do.”
