Henry Slade will only begin training from Friday, as Eddie Jones’s fitness issues continue ahead of England’s Six Nations opener against Scotland at Murrayfield on Saturday week.
The Exeter centre is “a strong candidate” to replace Owen Farrell, who was ruled out of the tournament on Wednesday after undergoing ankle surgery, at inside-centre.
Slade, however, is still recovering from the after-effects of Exeter’s defeat to Montpellier on Sunday. It is the latest issue England have had to deal with, as Courtney Lawes has also not trained this week because he is undergoing head injury protocols, while Joe Marler has Covid.
“[Slade] is definitely a strong candidate,” said Jones, when asked who could play 12 in Farrell’s absence. “But he is not going to train until Friday. He is carrying a few things from the Montpellier game. We have got Mark Atkinson there who can play 12 as well, so they are the two guys at the moment that stand out.”
Jones backed Farrell to come back “better than ever” from his latest injury and thrive during the latter stages of his career, just like New Zealand legend Dan Carter.
“Owen is one of the most resilient, most driven players that I know, so he has got to take his medicine now, which is have the operation, rehab, go through all that pain,” said Jones.
“I think there is a lot of evidence for over-30 players, particularly the young guys coming through, where they can play their best rugby from 30 to 35.
“If you look at Dan Carter, what a great example. The only World Cup he ended up playing in, because of injury, he was 35, and he was absolutely superb. Then he went on to play another couple of great years in Japan and for Racing, so there is no reason Owen can’t be moving into a real important part of his career.
“Sometimes you have got to train differently when you get to over 30 but there is no reason why he can’t get better.”
