The autumnal leaves are falling and so are England’s tight forwards. Stuart Lancaster is not due to announce his November squad for another three weeks but the names of Alex Corbisiero and Geoff Parling have been added to an injury list that already includes three more series-winning Lions players in Dan Cole, Tom Youngs and Mako Vunipola.
Corbisiero will be sidelined until the new year after surgery on the shoulder ligament tear he sustained playing for Northampton against Bath last Saturday. The 26-year-old, who has had to battle recurring knee problems in recent seasons, will miss all of England’s four November internationals and faces a race to be match fit for the start of the Six Nations in early February. Northampton say the loosehead prop will be out until “early 2015” after a specialist advised immediate surgery was required if Corbisiero wished to “play to an optimum level in the future”.
The news on Parling is similarly unfortunate, with Leicester suggesting the lineout forward would be absent until December as he recovers from a series of concussions. The bearded lock also saw a specialist this week after being concussed for the second time in three games in the 45-0 Premiership defeat at Bath 10 days ago.
“Geoff will probably be another couple of months out. You’d like to think that by December he’ll be playing again,” said Richard Cockerill, Leicester’s director of rugby, confirming the former Newcastle forward would be taking a complete break from training and playing for the next month. “He will play again, there are no issues over that. He’s just had successive concussions in a short period of time and you have to take that very seriously. I need him out on the playing field from a rugby point of view but it’s not a bump, bruise or strain that you can play through. It’s a serious matter and the club take it very seriously.”
Parling described the situation as “incredibly frustrating” and was quick to emphasise both concussions had been mild, adding via Twitter he was “disappointed” with sections of the media for “exaggerating the injury”. From Lancaster’s selection perspective, however, the cumulative effect of injuries on his autumn plans is starting to mount.
With Youngs, Vunipola and Cole unavailable for the international series, he will now be hoping Harlequins’ Joe Marler and Bath’s Dave Wilson stay in one piece before England’s first Twickenham date against New Zealand on 8 November.
There is mounting evidence, sadly, that the modern game grows ever more attritional, particularly up front, with Andrew Sheridan confirming his retirement because of a long-standing neck problem and the durable All Black loosehead Tony Woodcock also due to miss the rest of the year so he can have shoulder surgery.
Corbisiero should have won many more caps for England than his tally of 19. Having been a try-scoring hero of the Lions’ series-clinching third Test win against Australia in Sydney last year, Lancaster will be desperate to have him available on a regular basis in 2015.
For now it is likely to mean a call-up for Wasps’ Matt Mullan when Lancaster confirms his autumn squad on 22 October. With two more Premiership rounds and the first weekend of European club rugby to come in the meantime, these are increasingly tense times for the England management. If the All Blacks, South Africa, Samoa and Australia are to be beaten on successive Saturdays, England will need all the forward oomph they can muster.
