The England hooker Jamie George has been ruled out of the match against Wales on Saturday by a biceps injury and will be replaced on the bench by Luke Cowan-Dickie.

The Saracens player ruptured a tendon during training on Tuesday afternoon and must sit out the Six Nations title showdown against Warren Gatland’s team at Twickenham.

Cowan-Dickie won his solitary cap against France in the build-up to the World Cup last autumn and will supply cover for the England captain, Dylan Hartley.

The England forwards coach, Steve Borthwick, revealed that George may struggle to play again this season after a scan confirmed he would be out for up to 10 weeks.

“Jamie hurt his biceps in training and had a scan. It’s a ruptured tendon and it looks like he’ll be out for eight to 10 weeks,” Borthwick said.

“On the video of the training session, I watched the incident and it looked very innocuous. It was an arm out during a tackle and that was it. He carried on training and didn’t think much of it, but then realised it was worse than he thought and saw the doctor.”

Cowan-Dickie will play only a minor supporting role given Hartley’s importance to the team, but Borthwick expects the 22-year-old to thrive if summoned from the bench.

“I watched Luke play for Exeter and since he’s come into camp he’s been very impressive. I’ve got to know him well and he’s done well,” Borthwick said. “He’s a really tough, physical player. He’s a very strong ball carrier and is very competitive. He’s done really well in training.

“There are no concerns over his inexperience coming into a game like this. These are all big games. Every England match is important.”

Borthwick confirmed that the second-row Joe Launchbury trained fully on Tuesday as he continued his comeback from the hamstring injury that forced him to sit out the 21-10 victory against Ireland.

England name their team to face Wales on Thursday morning with Launchbury expected to displace Maro Itoje on to the bench.
Source :AFP