England wing Jonny May has revealed he feared Saturday’s Test with Tonga would be called off due to a Covid-19 outbreak.
Captain Owen Farrell tested positive for coronavirus earlier this week and he missed the match at Twickenham.
May has said there is a belief it is a “false positive” and head coach Eddie Jones has said they are in talks with Public Health England as to whether Farrell can play against Australia next week.
England got their Autumn Nations Series off to a fine start by beating Tonga 69-3, but May feared the game could be off if more players tested positive for Covid-19.
Asked if there was any disruption with Farrell pulling out, May said: “Yes there was. It was stressful.
“It is hard enough preparing for a Test match without all [of that]. On Thursday morning, we have got a positive in the camp, we are about to train and we have all got to go back to our rooms and all have to PCR and lateral flow and we are not sure if we are going to train.
“In 20 minutes the message comes out we have got to race down and get training, all PCR, everybody is nervous...what if a positive comes back? Are we going to get a game in?
“Then Owen has obviously got a positive test back, it looks to all accounts to be a false positive and that is a different discussion.
“I was worried about coming down to breakfast this morning and the game not being on if we had had a few more positives. To perform under those conditions and distractions is a credit to the team.
“It didn’t knock us off our stride, but it was a distraction that we dealt with well. It was challenging.”
