Late injury blow for England

INJURY UPDATE: England suffered a late injury blow ahead of their Test match against the Springboks at Twickenham on Saturday.

Manu Tuilagi has been ruled out of the match with a groin strain and his place on the bench is taken by Chris Ashton.

Tuilagi sustained the injury during training on Thursday.

Ashton has returned to English rugby this season after a year with Toulon and the Sale Sharks back scored a hat-trick in his last outing the Challenge Cup against Connacht.

If the 31-year-old does come off the bench it will be his first England cap in four years, as he last played on the 2014 tour of New Zealand.

England – revised: 15 Elliot Daly, 14 Jack Nowell, 13 Henry Slade, 12 Ben Te’o, 11 Jonny May, 10 Owen Farrell (co-captain), 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Mark Wilson, 7 Tom Curry, 6 Brad Shields, 5 George Kruis, 4 Maro Itoje, 3 Kyle Sinckler, 2 Dylan Hartley (co-captain), 1 Alec Hepburn.
Replacements: 16 Jamie George, 17 Ben Moon, 18 Harry Williams, 19 Charlie Ewels, 20 Zach Mercer, 21 Danny Care, 22 George Ford, 23 Chris Ashton.

Date: Saturday, November 3
Venue: Twickenham, London
Kick-off: 15.00 (17.00 SA time; 15.00 GMT)
Referee: Angus Gardner (Australia)
Assistant referees: Jérôme Garcès (France), Ben Whitehouse (Wales)
TMO: Olly Hodges (Ireland)

#ENGvRSA SQUAD UPDATE | @ChrisAshton1 comes in for the injured @Manutuilagi.

PREVIEW ➡ https://t.co/yJKpq4uZ89 pic.twitter.com/YcolEwUQaC

ADVERTISEMENT

— England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) November 2, 2018