Eddie Jones will be sweating over whether his star player Maro Itoje has suffered a broken hand that could rule him out of test series against South Africa
The Saracens star suffered the injury in his side's match against the Scarlet's on Saturday
MARO ITOJE will discover today if he suffered a broken hand against Scarlet's on Saturday.
The Saracens and England forward suffered the injury making a tackle early in the second half of an emphatic 44-26 Champions Cup victory at Allianz Park.
A club spokesman said: "Maro has had an X-Ray on his hand, but there will be no update on the result until Monday."
That leaves both club and country sweating on the outcome because Itoje’s Saracens and England lock partner George Kruis is already ruled out for four to six weeks following minor ankle surgery.
England head coach Eddie Jones is especially anxious having already lost EIGHT players ahead of the four-Test autumn series at Twickenham which kicks-off against South Africa on November 12.
With openside flanker options Sam Jones, Jack Clifford and Mike Williams ruled out injured, Jones planned to play Itoje at number seven against the Springboks.
Related Stories
Jones takes his squad to Portugal on October 30 for warm-weather training knowing he’s also without Jack Nowell, Manu Tuilagi, Anthony Watson, James Haskell and Kruis.
Itoje, 22 this Friday, played a major role in England’s first Grand Slam since 2003 and their historic 3-0 whitewash of the Wallabies in Australia during the summer.
Jones has Wasps captain Joe Launchbury and Courtney Lawes of Northampton to step up as a lock-pairing if Itoje is ruled out.
But the back-row options are another matter. Chris Robshaw is favourite for blindside flanker and Billy Vunipola a cert’ at No.8
That leaves Matt Kvesic of Gloucester, Northampton’s Teimana Harrison or Will Fraser of Saracens as outside bets for the troublesome openside jersey.