Six Nations: Maro Itoje ruled out of England vs France as well as Wales match with knee injury

England lock Maro Itoje has been ruled out of Sunday's Six Nations match against France as well as the third-round fixture with Wales due to the knee ligament injury that he suffered against Ireland last weekend. But head coach Eddie Jones hopes that the influential forward could yet recover in time to play a part in the final two weeks of the championship.

Itoje injured his medial collateral ligament in his right knee in a ruck during the second half of England’s 32-20 victory over Ireland last Saturday evening, with the injury looking to be severe enough that referee Jerome Garces was overheard telling the Irish team “I think he broke his knee”.

That is not the case, but Itoje will not be fit to face France this Sunday and has also been ruled out of the trip to Cardiff on 23 February to face Wales, resulting in Jones handing a recall to his Saracens teammate Nick Isiekwe whose last cap came on the summer tour of South Africa last June.

"Maro had the scan and saw a specialist yesterday (Monday). It's ligament damage to his knee," forwards coach Steve Borthwick said.

"We anticipate him being able to play at the latter part of the tournament. Hopefully he'll heal fast and we'll have him back ASAP.

"Which game that is for depends on how his rehab goes over the next couple of weeks, but we'd expect him to feature later on."

Isiekwe is the only new face in the 35-man squad who trained in Portugal last week, but Bath centre Jonathan Joseph has not been included after featuring in the Premiership Rugby Cup 52-0 thrashing of Gloucester on Monday night in a match rearranged twice from the weekend.

The likelihood is that Isiekwe will provide cover for George Kruis, Courtney Lawes and Joe Launchbury, with the latter set to return to the squad after being the unlucky 24th man to miss out on last weekend’s encounter.

"Maro's a fantastic player and a great personality around the squad. Clearly it's significant that he's out, but we have a lot of brilliant players in his position," Borthwick added. "You'll always miss a player of his calibre, you'll take some strength out of your team, but we have very good and experienced players to come in.

"It was a tough decision to leave Joe out against Ireland and he was brilliant in the way he supported the team, which is great credit to him.

"We all saw the impact Lawes had off the bench, the hitting power he has and how he can carry.

"We approach team selection by picking the team that we want to get the result for that weekend. We always look at different combinations and we'll be doing that over the next few days."

Kyle Sinckler is included and will report for training in Tuesday despite limping off the field in the second half against Ireland, though Jones played down any fears over the tighthead prop. Brad Shields, Ben Te’o and Joe Cokanasiga are all included and will be assessed this week after missing the Ireland victory through injury.

As with last week, Jones names four uncapped players in his squad that will prepare to face a France side who lost their opening match against Wales 24-19, despite taking a 16-0 advantage into the second half.

Worcester hooker Jack Singleton, Saracens flanker Ben Earl, Wasps scrum-half Dan Robson and Gloucester wing Ollie Thorley are all included, although Robson looks to be the only one in with a shout of making his debut this week after remaining on the replacements’ bench in Dublin, with Jones reluctant to send him on for Ben Youngs.

Forwards

Jack Clifford (Harlequins), Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers), Luke Cowan-Dickie (Exeter Chiefs), Tom Curry (Sale Sharks), Ben Earl (Saracens) *, Ellis Genge (Leicester Tigers), Jamie George (Saracens), Nathan Hughes (Wasps), Nick Isiekwe (Saracens), George Kruis (Saracens), Joe Launchbury (Wasps), Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints), Ben Moon (Exeter Chiefs), Brad Shields (Wasps), Kyle Sinckler (Harlequins), Jack Singleton (Worcester Warriors) *, Billy Vunipola (Saracens), Mako Vunipola (Saracens), Harry Williams (Exeter Chiefs), Mark Wilson (Newcastle Falcons).

Backs

Chris Ashton (Sale Sharks), Mike Brown (Harlequins), Joe Cokanasiga (Bath Rugby), Elliot Daly (Wasps), Ollie Devoto (Exeter Chiefs), Owen Farrell (Saracens) captain, George Ford (Leicester Tigers), Jonny May (Leicester Tigers), Jack Nowell (Exeter Chiefs), Dan Robson (Wasps) *, Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs), Ben Te’o (Worcester Warriors), Ollie Thorley (Gloucester Rugby) *, Manu Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers), Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers)

*uncapped