England have encountered further problems at loosehead prop in the buildup to their Six Nations match with Wales a week on Saturday after Ellis Genge picked up an ankle injury in training.
Genge failed to finish Thursday’s training session because of soreness in an ankle and, while England are hopeful there will not be “any major consequences”, it is an unwanted disruption for Eddie Jones, who is already without Mako Vunipola for the rest of the championship.
Vunipola started both England’s victories, against Ireland and France, with Genge on the bench in Dublin and Exeter’s Ben Moon among the replacements at Twickenham last Sunday. When Vunipola was ruled out on Tuesday Genge and Moon were set to vie for the No 1 jersey but, if the Leicester prop is unavailable, Exeter’s Alec Hepburn would most likely come into the equation. Moon and Hepburn have only four starts between them but they shared loosehead duties to impressive effect during the November series when Vunipola and Genge were sidelined and Joe Marler had just retired from international duty.
“Ellis Genge in training today reported a sore ankle so he was withdrawn,” said the England forwards coach, Steve Borthwick. “He reported the ankle so we said: ‘Right, stop training, we won’t push that.’ We don’t think there will be any major consequences. It’s ongoing and it was the right decision to ensure he didn’t finish training.
“Mako’s play has been exceptional. It’s disappointing because he’s a very good player but we’ve also got some very good loosehead props in Ben Moon, look at the way he played in November, and while Genge left training today he’s also an excellent player.”
Maro Itoje and Dylan Hartley were present at the training session but were not considered as part of the 25-man squad and their involvement was considerably limited. Hartley is not expected to be in contention to face Wales but Borthwick did not rule out the possibility of Itoje returning from his knee injury ahead of schedule, even if the likelihood remains remote.
“Maro’s progressing well each day,” Borthwick said. “He’s working exceptionally hard as you’d expect from him. He’s doing everything possible he can to recover as quickly as possible. He’s on track to be back on the field in the latter part of the tournament. He’s healing fast.”
