England’s front row crisis worsened afer it was confirmed that Alex Corbisiero has been ruled out of Saturday’s Test against the All Blacks at Twickenham.
England are also without Mako Vunipola, who is nursing a knee injury, while Joe Marler still has to pass a concussion test to prove his fitness.
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Wing Marland Yarde (hip) is making good progress but he too, will be unavailable this weekend.
“Alex Corbisiero took part in this morning’s forwards training session but suffered some discomfort to his knee. He did not train this afternoon and will not be available for selection for the weekend,” said England head coach Stuart Lancaster, who released 15 players back to their clubs.
“It is disappointing for Alex, having missed last year’s Six Nations because of an injury to his other knee, but Matt Mullan has been with us all week and is raring to go in the 23. Marland Yarde took part in training today but is not fully fit to be considered for the game.”
Lancaster, however, remained upbeat ahead of the clash against the world champions.
“We’ve had a good start to the week and now it’s a case of tapering down the training and getting ourselves ready for the ultimate challenge,” he said.
“The Twickenham crowd has been great over the last two weeks and we know they will be just as vocal as they were against New Zealand last year.”
England squad:
Forwards: Dan Cole, Dylan Hartley, Joe Launchbury, Courtney Lawes, Joe Marler, Ben Morgan, Matt Mullan, Geoff Parling, Chris Robshaw, Billy Vunipola, David Wilson, Tom Wood, Tom Youngs.
Backs: Chris Ashton, Mike Brown, Lee Dickson, Owen Farrell, Toby Flood, Ben Foden, Alex Goode, Joel Tomkins, Billy Twelvetrees, Ben Youngs.
Released: Dave Attwood, Freddie Burns, Luther Burrell, Danny Care, Alex Corbisiero, Kyle Eastmond, Tom Johnson, Matt Kvesic, Henry Thomas, Henry Trinder, Mako Vunipola, Marland Yarde, Rob Webber, Christian Wade, Anthony Watson.