England confirms injured Watson's replacement

TEAM UPDATE: England has confirmed that Jonny May has replaced Anthony Watson in their squad for the World Cup.

Injury-plagued Watson will miss the tournament in France after suffering a calf injury during England’s recent World Cup warm-up loss to Ireland.

Watson would have been a certain starter for the pivotal World Cup opener against Argentina on September 9.

Now he faces another period of rehabilitation, having battled back from long-term knee and Achilles injuries.

May, who started England’s surprise warm-up defeat against Fiji at the weekend, has filled the gap in the 33-man squad to be submitted to World Rugby on Monday.

The only other player missing from the group originally named by England boss Steve Borthwick on August 7 is Jack van Poortvliet.

Van Poortvliet has an ankle and has been replaced by Alex Mitchell.

Elliot Daly and Kyle Sinckler are in the squad as they continue their recovery from knee and pectoral injuries respectively.

Fiji’s victory at Twickenham has heightened the sense of crisis around Borthwick’s team ahead of the World Cup.

It was the first time England had lost to a current tier two nation in their 152-year history, condemning them to a fifth defeat in six matches.

England star George Ford admits that only by confronting hard truths will disaster be averted in the World Cup opener in Marseille.

“We don’t want the benefit of the doubt, we know we haven’t played well enough and know the results haven’t been good enough,” Ford said.

“When you lose for England you understand what’s going to come with it. We’re not shying away from that.

“We’re going to stick together and sort ourselves out in terms of making our preparation as good as it can be for Argentina. I’m comfortable we’ll be in a good place.

“What separates good teams from the great is that when things aren’t going well and you need to front a few things up and be honest, you do that.

“Look it square in the face because you can’t ignore those things – if you do then they will come back to haunt you later on.”