England trio in doubt over COVID-19 concerns
England may lose three players from its training squad because of issues relating to coronavirus, head coach Eddie Jones has revealed.
After a 28-man pool including 12 uncapped players was selected on Monday, Jones is concerned over a trio of unnamed stars.
Jones was already unable to pick from the top four teams in the English Premiership ahead of the semi-finals and restrictions also applied to Sale and Worcester players after their clash was re-arranged due to COVID-19 cases at the Sharks.
Now there may need to be further alterations to his plans.
"Well, I really don't know what's happened, all I try to do is select the players that are available, so that's all I've been worried about," said Jones when asked if the Sale situation would disrupt England.
"We are looking at three players [on Tuesday] whether they will be available to be selected, we'll find out this morning and then we'll just wait and see.
"Look, I think this is going to be the way it is at the moment.
"I just saw in the football England had three players unavailable this morning, they can't go into Gareth Southgate's camp.
"It's a fact of life at the moment, that's what we have to deal with, we can't get too worried about it, we're not too obsessed about it.
"We'll just take the players that are available, and work with those players."
England is preparing for the conclusion of the Six Nations – it next faces Italy on 1 November (AEST) – as well as the Autumn Nations Cup, but centre Manu Tuilagi is not involved after tearing his Achilles tendon.
Jones said: "Manu was the focal point of our attack, and we have to find other ways of having focal points of our attack.
"We will miss Manu greatly, he's been a terrific team-mate, terrific team player, and we feel for him.
"But we move on, we'll find other alternatives and other ways of playing."
