ENGLAND CAPTAIN LEWIS Moody has been ruled out of his side’s opening game against Argentina, Martin Johnson has told reporters.
The star is recovering from a knee injury that he suffered in England’s World Cup warm-up match against Wales on 6 August.
The injury is a recurrence of one he suffered while playing for Bath in January, and he has only played 62 minutes of test rugby all year, owing to these problems.
The England coach said that playing Moody in the opening game was a risk they were unwilling to take:
“The medics and the fitness guys take him through a progression of training and we hoped it would all be ready to go today but he is just a little bit short.”
As a result of his absence, Mike Tindall is likely to captain the side, while James Haskell is favourite to start in the No7 jersey.
Meanwhile, concerns about Leicester scrum-half Ben Youngs have been allayed after he took full part in his side’s training session today.
