Jack Willis has been ruled out of England’s Rugby World Cup campaign due to a neck injury.
The Toulouse flanker suffered the blow in England’s 71-0 win over Chile in Lille on Saturday, September 23.
England tried to rehab Willis in the hope of keeping the former Wasps flanker out in France, but the Red Rose medics had to admit defeat on Wednesday night.
England will call up a replacement, yet to be decided, with the new man expected to arrive by the start of next week.
“Jack Willis suffered a neck injury against Chile that he has worked hard to recover from, but unfortunately he has been unable to do that at this stage,” said England boss Steve Borthwick.
“Jack has left the squad, and his replacement will be announced in due course. We are really disappointed for Jack.
“The injury is likely to be just a few weeks, but the timescales of this competition still do mean that he will be replaced in the squad.
“Jack’s naturally very, very disappointed. His return to being back on the field has already started. A determined man like that wants to get stuck into the work that needs to be done.”
Willis will be unavailable for selection for the Six Nations after his decision to sign a new contract and stay at Toulouse for the season ahead.
He was able to represent England up to this point after signing for Toulouse due to Wasps’ fall into administration.
But Willis’ decision to sign a new deal in France means he will be off-limits after the World Cup due to England’s general policy of not selecting overseas-based players.
England boss Borthwick refused to dig into how Willis’ unavailability will affect the Red Rose set-up beyond the World Cup.
“I’m really disappointed for him for this World Cup, for this game, this tournament,” said Borthwick.
“As for anything else we can discuss that after the tournament.”
