Hodgson's World Cup hopes dive as injuries rock England

Charlie Hodgson's chances of spearheading England's World Cup campaign in France next year are every bit as remote as the shop-soiled champions' prospects of retaining the trophy they won almost exactly three years ago. Jonny Wilkinson's successor as the red rose army's outside-half ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee during last Saturday's face-saving victory over South Africa at Twickenham and will be extremely fortunate to play a serious game of rugby this side of next autumn.

It leaves Andy Robinson and his fellow selectors in immediate search of a long-term replacement. Andy Goode of Leicester is virtually certain to face the Springboks in this Saturday's second and final Test, having played a cool hand in guiding England to their narrow win at the weekend, but the news of Hodgson's desperate misfortune - he suffered an identical injury to his left knee in 2003 and missed the World Cup triumph as a result - means the national hierarchy are in greater need than ever of a fit Wilkinson. Sadly for them, the orthopaedically challenged Newcastle stand-off shows little or no sign of stringing two games together, let alone six months' worth of meaningful competitive activity. Needless to say, he is injured at the moment.

Robinson, fighting tooth and nail to save his job as England's head coach, received a second blow to the unmentionables yesterday when Andrew Sheridan, the outsized loose-head prop who plays alongside Hodgson at Sale, was also declared hors de combat for the rest of the season. Sheridan fractured an ankle against the Boks and suffered significant ligament damage into the bargain. Both men will undergo surgery next week.

Sheridan has a better chance of regaining match fitness ahead of the World Cup, which begins next September, but this is of little comfort to Sale, the reigning English champions. Their Premiership and Heineken Cup ambitions, wholly realistic at the start of the season, have been reduced to dust, not least because a third big-hitting international, the flanker Jason White, is suffering from the same injury as Hodgson and faces nine months of enforced inactivity. White damaged his knee during Scotland's comfortable victory over Romania 10 days ago.

"The international period has been brutal to us," said Niels de Vos, the club's chief executive, who had watched a Sale team comprehensively wrecked by international calls go down at home to Newcastle last Friday night. "To lose three of our most important players is a savage blow. That had to be one of the worst weekends endured by Sale for many a long year." And one of the most expensive, too. The English and Scottish unions will pay the injured players' wages until they regain fitness, but Sale will not be compensated if their campaign implodes. De Vos did not admit as much yesterday, but he must be seriously concerned at a potential reduction in business at the turnstiles, not to mention a costly failure to qualify for the 2007-08 Heineken Cup.

Despite Wilkinson's continued absence as he recovers from kidney damage, England are not short of outside-half options this week, thanks to the presence of a second Newcastle midfielder, Toby Flood, in support of Goode. They are in something of a mess in the front row, however. Perry Freshwater has not recovered from the knee problem he picked up during the defeat by Argentina and is not available to fill the substantial hole left by Sheridan. As Phil Vickery, so influential in Sheridan's stead last Saturday, is a specialist tight head, the selectors have called Tim Payne of Wasps into a 28-man party preparing for this last outing of the year.

As well as the 20 players still in one piece following last weekend's game, the squad includes the Wasps wing Paul Sackey and two centres, Anthony Allen of Gloucester and Ben Johnston of Saracens. The Sale prop Stuart Turner and the Bath lock Danny Grewcock are back in the frame up front, although the former may pick up a suspension tomorrow following his sending-off against Newcastle. So too are a couple of open-side flankers: Magnus Lund of Sale and Tom Rees of Wasps. Rees would have made his debut against the All Blacks in the first of the autumn matches, but broke down with shoulder trouble. If the selectors are bold, they will run him from the start this weekend.

While England were rocked to the foundations by the latest bulletins from the medical profession, Scotland fared almost as badly. Their back-row resources have been further stretched as a result of Johnnie Beattie's ankle problems, suffered during the victory over the Pacific Islanders on Saturday. He will definitely miss the forthcoming meeting with Australia, as will the scrum-half Chris Cusiter, who picked up a shoulder injury that may keep him on the sidelines until mid-February.

On a more cheerful note, two of Gloucester's bright young things, the centre Jack Adams and the prop Jack Forster, have signed deals keeping them at Kingsholm until 2009. "We are looking to build a squad over the long-term that has as its heart young, talented English players," said Dean Ryan, the director of rugby. One glance in the general direction of Sale might leave him wondering whether it is worth the bother.

After Hodgson: Five in the frame

* ANDY GOODE

The next in line, although challenges will come thick and fast in coming months. His tactical punting suits England's optimum forward-oriented game.

* OLLY BARKLEY

Certain to come into the reckoning, at outside-half or inside-centre. A strong kicker with a touch of class.

* JONNY WILKINSON

Indisputably the best in the world in 2002, barely visible since 2003.

* RYAN LAMB

The most precocious of the new generation, Lamb (above) has attitude oozing from every pore.

* TOBY FLOOD

A rich talent with the right physical attributes.