England wing Anthony Watson has been ruled out of the Rugby World Cup in France with a calf injury.
England head coach Steve Borthwick says Watson picked up the injury during last weekend’s warm-up defeat by Ireland and will be out for a number of weeks.
No replacement has yet been named in Borthwick’s 33-man squad but Jonny May is set to start on the wing against Fiji in Saturday’s final warm-up match.
England begin their World Cup campaign against Argentina on 9 September.
“We are desperately disappointed for Anthony,” Borthwick told BBC Sport.
“He is an important member of this squad and one that has enormous respect from everybody. He has had setbacks before and always worked through them and I know he’ll be back on the field as soon as possible.”
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Watson, 29, has won 56 caps for England.
He played at the 2015 and 2019 World Cups and was a member of the British and Irish Lions tours to New Zealand and South Africa.
Meanwhile, utility back Elliot Daly has a knee injury and is unavailable for this weekend but is expected to be fit for the World Cup and wing Henry Arundell is recovering from a back spasm.
Flanker Tom Curry continues his recovery from an ankle injury and lock George Martin remains sidelined with a knee injury.
England have already lost scrum-half Jack van Poortvliet to an ankle injury for the tournament and he has been replaced in the squad by Al
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